The figure of the Yin-Yang Pass Old Ancestor stood alone in the middle of the battlefield. Several ignorant and fearless Low-Rank Black Ink Clansmen charged towards her; however, her sharp aura alone was enough to cause them to explode into mist before they could even approach her.
Her gaze swept lightly in the direction that Zhe Chong had escaped, and the corners of her mouth curled into a slight smile.
Xiang Shan had asked her to allow one of the Territory Lords to escape so that the Royal Lord would be informed of their presence. She had initially wondered how she could seamlessly succeed at something like that.
For a Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master like her, it was not easy for her to pull off such a trick as the gap in strength was too large. If her actions were too obvious, they would only arouse suspicion.
She never imagined that there would be a Territory Lord who did not step into the universe fragments at all. Moreover, he immediately decided to flee as soon as he detected her aura. It was undoubtedly an outcome that she was happy to see, so she simply pretended not to notice his presence.
Out of the dozen Territory Lords, she only needed to allow one to escape. The rest… would die without exception!
Xiang Shan had mentioned that the primary goal of Great Evolution Army was not to recover Great Evolution Pass but to beat the Great Evolution Theatre Black Ink Clan half to death. Only then would they gain the opportunity to build a stable foothold at Great Evolution Pass.
The deaths of 300,000 troops and nearly a dozen Territory Lords was probably not a small loss to the Black Ink Clan of the Great Evolution Theatre.
The more opportunities the Human Army had to weaken the forces of the Black Ink Clan, the lesser the pressure they would face when they arrived at the Great Evolution Theatre in the future.
After confirming that the Territory Lord had escaped into the distance, the Old Ancestor no longer held back and cast a Divine Ability. An enormous Yin-Yang Fish manifested behind her, its black and white colours enveloping the entire battlefield with herself as the centre.
The Human Race Army caught up in the Divine Ability was not affected in any way, but the Black Ink Clan felt like they were sinking into a quagmire. Their figures seemed to become stagnant and the strength of those below the Feudal Lords was reduced by some 30%. Even the Feudal Lords were considerably weakened; only the Territory Lords seemed unaffected.
That was not to say that the Old Ancestor’s Divine Ability was ineffective towards the Territory Lords, it was just that the range she cast it over was too large, so the effects of its suppression on the Territory Lords were minimal.
Even without the suppression from this Divine Ability though, the Territory Lords were caught in a terrible situation.
There were 3 to 5 Eighth-Order Masters surrounding each Territory Lord to begin with, so which one of them withstand the countless Divine Abilities and Secret Techniques that came raining down on them?
Only half of the Eighth-Order Masters were tasked with attacking the Territory Lords. The other 30 were moving back and forth across the battlefield, working together with the troops to reap the lives of the Black Ink Clan to their hearts’ content. Everywhere these Eighth-Order Masters went, their presence would give rise to a reign of terror. The Black Ink Clan were mowed down in droves, like harvesting wheat in a field.
The battle began hastily, and the ambush was rather imperfect, but nevertheless, with the help of the 30 Eighth-Order Masters, the Human Army of 30,000 obtained a crushing victory over the Black Ink Clan.
Even so, the reaction of the Black Ink Clan puzzled many people.
In the beginning, these Black Ink Clansmen had shown no fear towards the Humans regardless of their cultivation. Even the Low-Rank Clansmen had charged towards the Humans without any scruples. Forget the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters, many Black Ink Clansmen even dared to attack the Old Ancestor.
The reason for this situation naturally stemmed from the fact that these Black Ink Clansmen came from the Great Evolution Theatre and most of them had never fought with the Human Race before.
Every time Great Evolution Theatre provided reinforcements to attack Wind and Cloud Army, only the Territory Lords who led the Army and some lucky Feudal Lords would return alive. The rest generally died on the battlefield. Consequently, many of the Black Ink Clansmen had never experienced a battle against the Humans before.
However, they were the Black Ink Clan from Great Evolution Theatre. Their ancestors were the only ones who successfully seized one of the Great Passes. Almost all the Black Ink Clansmen below the Feudal Lords believed that the Human Race was extremely weak. That was why the Black Ink Clan Army of 300,000 had bravely fought back despite being ambushed and severely outmatched.
As time passed though, and the number of clansmen decreased, they finally realised that the information passed down from ancient times did not match up to reality.
The Humans were not as weak as the rumours claimed. It turned out that every one of them was extremely strong. Not to mention, they could borrow the power of large artifacts that came in varying shapes and sizes to fight. As long as the defences of these artifacts remained intact, the Black Ink Clan could barely cause any damage towards them.
After about half of the Army had died in battle, the Black Ink Clan finally understood their situation. The Humans seemed to be much fewer in number, but they were still a force they could not compete with.
Unfortunately, the realisation had come too late. Under the command of Xiang Shan and Liu Zhi Ping, the entire universe fragment field had already turned into a perfect encirclement. Aside from the 30,000 or so Black Ink Clansmen who had originally been outside the ambush zone, the remaining Black Ink Clan Army no longer had the opportunity to flee even if they wanted to. What followed next was a one-sided massacre!
All the Territory Lords quickly fell in battle, leaving the surviving Black Ink Clansmen leaderless. They all fought independently, resulting in an extremely chaotic situation.
On the other hand, the Human Army had dozens of Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters and even an Old Ancestor assuming command. It was only natural that they would hold the absolute advantage.
In just one day, the Black Ink Clan Army was completely obliterated. All the universe fragments in the nearby void had been shattered to dust. Severed limbs and hashed meat were everywhere. Dense Black Ink Strength had condensed together to form an enormous Black Ink Cloud that filled a vast swath of the void. Looking out into the distance, the entire scene resembled a dark shadow.
The Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies gathered outside the Black Ink Cloud; however, they did not rush to set off immediately and decided to stop to rest and recover instead.
Since Xiang Shan had decided to alert the enemy of their presence, it stood to reason that he would need to give the Black Ink Clan enough time to react, so there was no need to rush.
The Territory Lord who escaped needed a head-start. Although there was no knowing how he would report the situation back to the Royal Lord, the Royal Lord would surely realise that something was wrong as long as he was not a fool. For example, where did the Human Race Army come from and where were they going?
The battle situation at Wind and Cloud Pass would have been reported to the Great Evolution Theatre’s Royal Lord via the Black Ink Nest by now, so when the Territory Lord who escaped earlier reported the current situation to the Royal Lord, the latter would surely understand the intentions of the Great Evolution Army.
The reason for the Human’s decision to stop and reorganise was to give the Black Ink Clan some time to make the necessary arrangements.
The Great Evolution Army’s losses in this battle were minimal; after all, the difference in combat power between the two sides was immense. Once again, the Warships played a huge role in limiting the number of casualties to the hundreds.
An Army of 30,000 troops had defeated 300,000 enemies, yet they only suffered a few hundred casualties. The losses could be considered negligible.
Meanwhile, Zhe Chong fled at the speed of lightning. Never before had he ever felt death so close to him. He had practically believed that he was as good as dead when he saw the Old Ancestor appearing on the battlefield.
Fortunately, it seemed luck was on his side. The Old Ancestor did not seem to have noticed him in the first place. Following his escape, a few tens of thousands of Black Ink Clansmen outside the Human ambush had scattered everywhere, which provided him with a good cover to conceal his tracks.
Be that as it may, Zhe Chong remained extremely uneasy. He was terribly afraid that the Old Ancestor would pursue him. If that were the case, then he could only resign himself to his death. It was fortunate that there were no signs of pursuit coming from behind.
On any battlefield, fleeing was a huge crime. Zhe Chong was sure he would be punished upon his return, but he couldn’t care less about such things at this moment. He simply wanted to inform the Royal Lord about the current crisis as soon as possible.
The Human Race was acting very differently from the usual. He did not know what they were planning, but he was certain the Royal Lord would know.
After escaping for a month, Zhe Chong finally felt relieved and became certain that the Old Ancestor was not chasing after him; otherwise, he would have been caught by now. The other Black Ink Clansmen who escaped with him had been left behind, but he didn’t care about their survival. At this moment, he was simply trying to return to the Great Evolution Theatre as quickly as possible.
Back at the original battlefield, Great Evolution’s Eastern and Western Armies spent some time recovering. According to the orders passed down from the higher-ups, they would have three days of rest before they resumed marching.
Most of the troops did not understand the meaning behind these orders; after all, they had only departed from Wind and Cloud Pass a few days ago. Although they encountered a big battle, there was no reason to take a rest yet. If that was the case, then why did they rush off from Wind and Cloud Pass in the first place?
Regardless, they didn’t question the order. Many had exhausted their energy during the battle, so they indeed needed some time to recover. Hence, nobody had any objections despite not understanding these strange orders.
Meanwhile, Yang Kai was doing some repair work on Dawning Light.
During the previous battle, Dawning Light had suffered some minor damage, and as a Grandmaster Artifact Refiner who also participated in the Black Ink Clan’s Warship project, it was not a problem for him to repair a few dents and cracks. Unfortunately, some of the damaged Spirit Arrays would require the help of the Array Masters travelling with the Army to fully repair.
Feng Ying was helping by the side while the rest of the members of Dawn were either idling around with nothing to do or cultivating diligently.
While Yang Kai was busy working, a Divine Sense suddenly fluctuated throughout the entire area. A message was transmitted via the Divine Sense, “Squad Leaders of the Western Army Fourth Division are to assemble immediately!”
The Divine Sense covered a large area, which happened to include the area where Dawning Light was located; therefore, Yang Kai and the others heard the orders clearly. The person who sent out the Divine Sense Message was the Eighth-Order Division Commander of Fourth Division.
Just as that Divine Sense vanished, another Divine Sense came out. This time around, it was the Division Commander of the First Division who issued orders to assemble together. The members of these two Divisions happened to be located near Dawn, which was why the orders from both Division Commanders also reached their ears.
Yang Kai couldn’t help looking around. In the next moment, he saw numerous Seventh-Order Squad Leaders emerge from the Warships nearby and gather in the direction of their respective Division Commanders.
“What’s going on?” Yang Kai looked confused.
Feng Ying replied, “Why don’t you go and ask?”
After giving the suggestion some thought, Yang Kai stopped what he was doing and headed towards one of the gathering points.
Two Division Commanders had transmitted messages, that obviously indicated that some sort of special deployment order had come from the higher-ups. It was not just these two Division Commanders though. The other Division Commanders had most likely sent out their own messages via voice Divine Sense, it was just that they were located at different positions, so Yang Kai could only hear the transmissions of these two Division Commanders.
Dawn was a Special Operations Squad, so unlike ordinary Squads, they did not belong to any Division or Battalion. They were under the direct command of the Army Commanders. The same was true for the Old Turtles.
While a Special Operations Squad generally enjoyed many benefits and preferential treatment, it became apparent that they were a slightly isolated existence at times like these. Even if the higher-ups had deployment orders for them, they had no Division Commander to inform them.
Although the Army Commanders would have made the necessary arrangements for them, Yang Kai preferred to understand the situation in advance.
It didn’t take long for him to arrive on one of the Battalion Class Warships.
Warships could generally be classified into three types. The most basic Squad Class Warships were used by ordinary Squads. Next came the Battalion Class Warship that was much larger and more imposing. In addition, the Battalion Class Warships usually carried far more firepower.
Before Yang Kai came to the Black Ink Battlefield, the Battalion-Class Warships were basically the largest among the Human Race. There was no such thing as a Division Class Warship.
High-Rank Open Heaven Realm Masters mainly relied upon their own respective means to slaughter their enemies on the battlefield in cooperation with the Warships under their command; therefore, they would never have to hide themselves away inside a Warship during battle. That was especially true for the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters. During the war, their main responsibility was to target and hold down the Territory Lords. Even if they had the cooperation of the Warships, the Warships would only be a burden to them.
A Battalion-Class Warship basically served as the headquarters of a Division. For example, every Division had its own Battalion-Class Warship during the march of the Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies. The Eighth-Order Division Commanders would generally issue various orders from where they were stationed on the Battalion-Class Warships.
There were 60 Divisions in the Eastern and Western Armies, which meant that there were 60 Battalion-Class Warships. Each Battalion-Class Warship not only had an Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Division Commander overseeing its operations, but also other auxiliary personnel. Nevertheless, these personnel roughly numbered no more than half the numbers of a Battalion or 50 people.
Battalion-Class Warships were much larger and had greater destructive power compared to Squad Class Warships. The role that a Battalion-Class Warship could play on the battlefield was no less than Dawning Light under Dawn’s command.
It was not until Yang Kai came to the Black Ink Battlefield that the Human Race finally created the larger Purifying Black Ink Battleships for the sake of carrying Purifying Light.
From a defensive and offensive aspect, a Purifying Black Ink Battleship was not much stronger than a Battalion-Class Warship; however, the Purifying Light sealed within the Purifying Black Ink Battleship was the Human Race’s biggest reliance against Black Ink Strength. Not to mention, the Universe Array set up on the Purifying Black Ink Battleships also played a significant role. That was why the Purifying Black Ink Battleships generally had a more significant meaning compared to a Battalion-Class Warship.
Yang Kai came to the Warship where the Division Commander of the First Division was located. The Division Commander of the First Division was also one of those who sent out a Divine Sense transmission earlier.
Each Division consisted of roughly 500 troops, with five Battalions under its command. Each Battalion subsequently consisted of eight or nine Squads, so there were approximately 45 Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Squad Leaders gathered here.
The Division Commander of the First Division was Xu Yong Da, who was personally appointed by Xiang Shan back at the Central Square of Wind and Cloud Pass. Yang Kai remembered him from back then.
Xu Yong Da stood on the deck with his hands behind his back. The Squad Leaders rushed over in droves and obediently stood in line before him.
When he saw Yang Kai in attendance, he simply glanced at him briefly and said nothing. It was evident that he knew Yang Kai came here to obtain information as the Squad Leader of a Special Operations Squad.
Not long afterwards, the adjutant next to him leaned over and reported in a low voice, “Sir, everyone is here.”
He nodded and finally opened his mouth to speak, “I called you over because I have orders from above.”
While Xu Yong Da was speaking, the adjutant reached up and swept his hand out before him. Materials of various Elements suddenly appeared in front of him. There were almost a dozen of these materials in varying shapes and sizes; moreover, these materials were of varying Orders. Everybody was confused by the sight before them.
Xu Yong Da stepped forward and pointed at the materials, “When you return to your respective Squads, you must collect the materials that are shown here. There are no requirements in terms of Order, so just collect as many as possible.”
There were times when the same materials might not have the same Order. Those with better formation conditions and enough time would have a higher Order. On the other hand, the reverse would result in materials with a lower Order instead.
One of the Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Squad Leaders asked curiously, “Sir, what is the purpose of collecting these materials?”
Xu Yong Da replied, “The higher-ups have their own considerations. Don’t ask so many questions and simply collect what you have been told to collect. The time limit is half a day. Each Squad Leader will be responsible for their respective Squad. Please gather all the materials presented in front of you and deliver them here promptly.”
“Yes!” The Squad Leaders received the orders and dispersed back to their Squads.
There was an unwritten rule on the Black Ink Battlefield that every cultivator would leave all their resources behind in their residence whenever they were dispatched from the Great Pass where they resided, especially during wartime. They normally did not carry many materials with them on the battlefield.
This practice was to prevent the loss of resources should they fall in battle or suffer from any unexpected accidents on the battlefield. By leaving all their materials in their residence, the property they left behind could be used by others if they lost their lives in battle.
The Humans on the Black Ink Battlefield used to live a difficult life where materials were desperately lacking. Although their situation had improved considerably, their deep-rooted habits formed over the years had not changed.
However, the situation among the troops of the Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies was different. They planned to retake Great Evolution Pass, so regardless of whether they survived the campaign, they would not be returning to their original Great Passes. They were part of the Great Evolution Army now.
For that reason, they had packed and brought all their belongings with them before the campaign began. That was not all though as the various Great Passes had also distributed large amounts of cultivation resources to the deployed troops, lest they lacked the necessary resources when they arrived at the Great Evolution Theatre. Therefore, all the troops in the Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies could be said to be extremely wealthy.
It would not be difficult to complete the order from the higher-ups to collect the specified materials as there were 30,000 troops in the Armies, and the number would not be too small either. If nothing else, there were piles of materials stacked up like mountains in Yang Kai’s Small Universe, so there would no doubt be many of the requested materials there.
Nevertheless, Yang Kai could not understand why the higher-ups wanted to gather these items. Looking at the situation, it would seem as though it was a sudden idea; otherwise, they would have prepared these materials back in the Inner Sanctum and not while the Army was on the march. Since it was a sudden idea, then the higher-ups must have come up with some kind of special plan while on the march. It might even have something to do with the battle earlier.
Deep in thought, Yang Kai quickly returned to the Dawning Light. A Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Master immediately came forward, “Junior Brother Yang!”
Yang Kai looked up and recognised that person as Li Xing, who also came from Blue Sky Pass. A total of 500 people had been dispatched from Blue Sky Pass, so even if he was not acquainted with all of them, Yang Kai would at least be familiar with their faces.
Yang Kai was not close to Li Xing, but they had met each other at Blue Sky Pass on several occasions. Furthermore, Li Xing currently served as Xiang Shan’s adjutant in the Great Evolution Army.
“Senior Brother Li!” Yang Kai cupped his fist in greeting and asked, “Do you need something, Senior Brother?”
Li Xing solemnly replied, “The Army Commander has summoned you. If you have nothing urgent going on, please come with me.”
Yang Kai nodded, “Please wait a moment, Senior Brother. I received orders from Division Commander Xu to gather some materials, so I would like to convey the orders to the others first.”
Li Xing had no objections.
Yang Kai immediately informed Feng Ying about the several dozen materials that Xu Yong Da had displayed earlier; then, he asked her to gather these materials from the Squad members and deliver them to the Division Commander.
Feng Ying diligently memorised the information and got to work.
After settling this matter, Yang Kai finally stretched out his hand in a polite gesture, “Please lead the way, Senior Brother.”
Li Xing nodded and took off.
The two of them navigated through the void and passed by numerous Warships before quickly arriving at the Purifying Black Ink Battleship stationed in the middle of the Army.
The Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies had two Purifying Black Ink Battleships. Xiang Shan and Liu Zhi Ping had each brought one from their respective Pass. It was just that Liu Zhi Ping had retrieved the Western Army’s Purifying Black Ink Battleship after everybody had left their Imprint on its Universe Array, so there was currently only one Purifying Black Ink Battleship with the Army at the moment. In this way, it was more convenient for the two Army Commanders to discuss various matters and receive intelligence since they were gathered in one spot.
When Yang Kai arrived at this place, he was startled to discover a bunch of people sitting down cross-legged on the ship’s deck. Moreover, it was not just the deck. There were also people floating nearby in the void.
Meanwhile, the person seated in the middle of this gathering was none other than Ma Fan. Xiang Shan, Liu Zhi Ping, and even the Old Ancestor were also present, but they stood not far away and watched quietly with no intention of intervening.
Yang Kai did not know what was happening, but Grandmaster Ma Fan seemed to be explaining the method of refining something at the moment. If Yang Kai was not mistaken, all the people gathered here were Artifact Refiners.
On this trip to recover Great Evolution Pass, there were more than 1,000 Artifact Refiners marching along with the Army. That was the only way to ensure that the Warships would be repaired in a timely manner when damaged. Besides, if the Great Evolution Army could successfully retake Great Evolution Pass, they would ultimately require the strength of these Artifact Refiners to restore the Great Pass to its former glory.
The Army not only had 1,000 Artifact Refiners, but also quite a few Alchemists and Array Masters as well.
Among the 1,000 Artifact Refiners, there was another Artifact Refining Great Grandmaster aside from Grandmaster Ma Fan, as well as some 50 Grandmasters. The rest were mostly Artifact Refining Great Masters.
The Artifact Refining elites of several Great Passes had been gathered together in this place. In order to successfully retake Great Evolution Pass, each Great Pass had not been stingy to contribute their own talents.
With 1,000 such people gathered in one place, it was impossible for the deck to accommodate them all even if the Purifying Black Ink Battleship was quite large. That was why Yang Kai was greeted with the sight of Grandmaster Ma Fan being surrounded by a huge crowd.
Following Li Xing to stand in front of Xiang Shan and the others, Yang Kai respectfully bowed in greeting.
Xiang Shan nodded and waved his hand, “Go over there and listen with the others.”
“Yes!” Yang Kai obeyed and headed towards Grandmaster Ma Fan. After squeezing his way through the crowd, he finally managed to occupy a spot and carefully listened to the lecture.
A short while later, Yang Kai grasped the contents of this talk to an extent. Grandmaster Ma Fan was explaining the refining method of a mechanical puppet.
A mechanical puppet could be considered a kind of puppet, but the mechanical puppet developed by Grandmaster Ma Fan was clearly more agile and realistic than ordinary puppets. Not to mention, he was explaining the refining method of a humanoid puppet.
The refining method was not complicated. Under normal circumstances, an Artifact Refining Grandmaster would be more than qualified to refine these puppets. It was just that the quality of the refined puppets would depend on the refiner’s personal attainments and the materials used. The refining method of these humanoid puppets was probably created by Grandmaster Ma Fan himself, and that was why he was the one to teach them the method.
Whatever the case, his explanation was extremely thorough. All the Artifact Refiners gathered here were talented beyond their peers, so it was easy for them to quickly master the refining method. Some people also asked some questions and received detailed answers from Ma Fan, which gave them a deeper understanding of the refining method for these puppets.
Less than half a day later, the lecture ended and Grandmaster Ma Fan looked around the surroundings, “Does anybody else have any questions? If you have a question, please feel free to ask and this Old Master will explain to the best of his ability.”
Nobody said anything. Clearly, they had no questions regarding the contents of the lecture.
Ma Fan nodded in satisfaction, “In that case, this Old Master has prepared a jade slip for each of you. The jade slip contains a detailed refining method for the mechanical puppet. After receiving the necessary materials, you will have to figure out the refining by yourselves. If there is anything you don’t understand, you may come and ask this Old Master at any time.”
After saying that, he raised his large hand and numerous streams of lights appeared and drifted towards each person in attendance. Every single stream of light contained a single jade slip.
Although a thorough explanation had been given, there were bound to be many problems once these people started refining the puppets even though they understood the contents of the lecture. That was why he went the extra length to prepare these jade slips. These jade slips not only contained the detailed refining method but also some of his insights. In this way, they could reduce most of the difficulties by comparing their results with the jade slip during the process of refining.
Taking the jade slip, Yang Kai immersed his mind into it. He discovered that the jade slip contained the refining method of the humanoid mechanical puppet Grandmaster Ma Fan had explained earlier, but it was much more detailed and comprehensive.
It was almost like a complete pill recipe. The problems that should be watched out for during the refining process, when to use what materials, what issues might arise, and the solutions to fix these issues, everything was recorded neatly inside the jade slip.
With this jade slip in hand, refining the puppet would not be difficult even if they didn’t have someone to guide them through the process, so what more was needed when Grandmaster Ma Fan was willing to explain everything in person?
While Ma Fan was explaining the refining method for the humanoid puppet, numerous Eighth-Order Masters rushed over from various directions and handed the Space Rings in their hands to Xiang Shan before leaving once more.
As a steady stream of Eighth-Order Division Commanders came and went, the number of Space Rings that Xiang Shan was carrying gradually increased.
Xiang Shan handed these Space Rings to Li Xing, along with some instructions. Nodding lightly, Li Xing walked directly to a group of Artifact Refiners and said, “Please come to me, one at a time, to receive the necessary materials for refining the mechanical puppets.”
The Artifact Refiners quickly gathered around him upon hearing those words and soon surrounded him tightly.
Yang Kai did not go immediately and instead walked towards Ma Fan and asked, “Grandmaster, the Division Commanders issued an order earlier to gather some materials. Are those the materials needed for refining the mechanical puppets?”
Grandmaster Ma Fan nodded, “That’s right.”
Yang Kai was puzzled, “What’s the point of refining so many of these things?”
Grandmaster Ma Fan answered patiently, “I’m not too sure about the exact details either. I simply received a request from Army Commander Xiang Shan to teach the refining method of these puppets. As for what he plans to do with them, that’s up to his own considerations. However, the refining method of these puppets is something I learned on a whim when I was younger. Although they seem quite realistic from a distance, they aren’t much use in reality. According to my guess, these puppets can only be used as a distraction at most.”
Yang Kai seemed pensive.
On the other side, Xiang Shan spoke up once most of the Artifact Refiners had received the supplies, “After receiving the materials, please refine them carefully. Do your best to refine as many puppets as possible.”
Everybody nodded in acknowledgement.
Yang Kai guessed that he had been summoned here because he was now decently proficient in Artifact Refining. Since he already knew the reason behind this matter, there was no need to continue staying here. The other Artifact Refiners had to wait to receive their supplies, but he did not; therefore, he turned around and rushed towards Dawning Light after informing Grandmaster Ma Fan about his intentions.
Upon returning to Dawning Light, Yang Kai began refining the humanoid puppets right on the deck. The members of Dawn watched his movements curiously at the beginning, but they lost interest and went back to their own affairs as time passed.
Three days later, the Army set off again and continued to sail towards the Great Evolution Theatre. The marching speed of the Army was neither fast nor slow.
Another few days later, Yang Kai’s refining process came to an end. It was not difficult to refine the humanoid puppets as the process was easy to master as long as one had the standards of a Great Master, and Yang Kai was already a Grandmaster.
After the various components were refined, one simply needed to assemble them together. In that way, a mechanical puppet could be completed in just seven or eight days.
A group of Dawn members gathered on the deck and observed the finished product curiously. They were rather familiar with puppets as each of them had more or less seen similar objects throughout the journey of their growth.
From the external appearance, the humanoid puppet that Yang Kai refined did not look particularly special. It could even be said to be rather ugly. Although it had a humanoid frame, anybody who was not blind could see that it was not a living thing at a glance.
Yang Kai made the final checks to ensure that nothing was missing from the puppet he refined before nodding.
Shen Ao rubbed his chin as he muttered, “Say, why do the higher-ups want to refine these puppets?”
Qi Tai Chu thoughtfully suggested, “Maybe they will be used to increase the combat power of our Great Evolution Army? Speaking of which, how much strength can this puppet exert upon activation?”
Feng Ying shook her head, “They are probably not meant to strengthen the combat power of the Army. The Dao of Puppetry is profound and mysterious, so even if you refine a puppet, you will need to master special Puppet Arts in order to bring out their full strength. There are a few cultivators in Blue Sky Pass who are proficient in the Dao of Puppetry, so they might be able to make some use of these puppets, but with such a large number being produced, it’s obvious that these puppets were not prepared for them. Besides, most of them didn’t even come along on this campaign.”
“If they are not meant to strengthen our combat power, then what are they for? Are they meant to be nothing more than ornaments?” Ning Qi Zhi laughed, “Don’t tell me the higher-ups are planning to use these puppets to scare the Black Ink Clan away?”
“I don’t know whether they can scare the Black Ink Clan away, but these puppets probably aren’t meant to just be ornaments,” Yang Kai, who was busy working, suddenly interjected.
Feng Ying inquired, “Squad Leader, do you know what they are for?”
He shook his head, “I don’t. The higher-ups did not state their intentions clearly, they simply asked us to refine as many of these puppets as we could. Be that as it may, the resources consumed during the refining process are not particularly valuable and can even be considered common items. The refining method is not too advanced either, so even if these puppets were given to those who cultivated the Dao of Puppetry, they would not be able to play a significant role in battle. Any random Low-Rank Black Ink Clansman would be able to destroy one of these puppets in a single blow.”
During the conversation, he finished doing the final checks and confirmed that there were no issues with the puppet. According to the instructions written in the jade slip given by Grandmaster Ma Fan, only the final activation step was left. If there were no problems with this final step, then the refinement of the puppet could be considered a success.
Activating the puppet was simple, one only needed to inject World Force into the puppet. Needless to say, after consuming the injected World Force, the puppet would stop moving. This was typically why the power source of a puppet would generally be something other than a cultivator’s own strength. There was no need for Yang Kai to worry about these details though as his job was simply to refine these puppets. The higher-ups would make their own arrangements when the time came.
Raising his hand, Yang Kai pressed his palm against the chest of the puppet, circulated his World Force, and poured it into the puppet. As the World Force entered the puppet, the patterns on the body of the puppet lit up. Immediately after that, the puppet seemed to come alive and radiated a vibrant aura.
He immediately sensed an inexplicable connection forming between him and the puppet in front of him. This connection came from the World Force he poured into the puppet earlier. In other words, he could now easily control the puppet.
Be that as it may, what shocked everybody was that the puppet exuded the aura of a Fifth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master after being activated by Yang Kai!
Shen Ao was so shocked that he blurted out, “Are you serious!? Fifth-Order!?”
The puppet that Yang Kai spent seven or eight days to refine had the aura of a Fifth-Order Master! If it could exert the strength of a Fifth-Order Master as well, then that would be beyond astonishing! After all, the Human Race would only need to refine these puppets on a large scale and send them into battle to never have to worry about the casualties again!
Unexpectedly, Yang Kai seemed thoughtful, “The aura is realistic, but it’s just the aura.”
Thanks to the inexplicable connection between them, he had a deeper understanding of the puppet. The mechanical puppet developed by Grandmaster Ma Fan had a slightly different approach to the norm. Generally speaking, any puppet could exert a certain amount of strength when powered and controlled properly. Unfortunately, this puppet seemed to only imitate the aura of a Master and couldn’t actually utilize much strength at all. Its greatest use would be to frighten and mislead others.
With a simple thought, the puppet immediately began moving around on the deck. It could jump, run, and walk with ease. Judging by its posture, it was not very different from an actual person in terms of mobility, with its movements being agile and fluid.
Next, Yang Kai controlled the puppet to throw a punch.
As soon as the puppet punched out, the anticipation and excitement overflowing from the members of Dawn immediately turned into bitter disappointment. This couldn’t be helped though as in their eyes, the punch was so weak that it was practically powerless. None of them would even need to block this blow as they could simply stand there and take it without suffering any damage.
Sure enough, it was just as Yang Kai had mentioned earlier. The refining method for this puppet was not very advanced, and the materials used were not particularly valuable. It was not surprising that the puppet turned out so useless; hence, everybody couldn’t help feeling confused by the orders from the higher-ups. Why refine such useless puppets in such large quantities?
Having satisfied their curiosity, the members of Dawn lost interest in the useless puppets and returned to their own affairs.
Meanwhile, Yang Kai gave the puppet the order to move around freely before he began refining a second one. The refining process went much smoother than the first time, and the time he took was shortened by half a day. Everybody would go through a period of practice before they became skilled at anything after all. Yang Kai estimated that he would only need four to five days to refine another puppet to completion once he became proficient in this process.
After a series of checks, he confirmed that there were no problems with the second puppet. He then poured his World Force into it for the final activation. The puppet once again released the aura of a Fifth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master, almost identical to the first puppet.
The first puppet had already been stored in his Space Ring. Since Yang Kai had not provided it with much World Force to begin with, and did not continue to provide it with more, the puppet completely stopped moving after an incense stick or so.
The Army continued to march forward slowly, and the days gradually slipped by.
During this period, Yang Kai concentrated on refining the humanoid puppets and his speed increased with practice. Half a year later, he only needed five days to finish refining one.
In addition, as he became more proficient in this process, the aura released by the mechanical puppets he created were no longer limited to the Fifth Order. Oftentimes, the puppets he refined would release the aura of a Sixth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master when powered up. When his luck was particularly good, the puppets he refined would release an aura that was comparable to a Seventh-Order Master!
Unfortunately, that was his limit. Yang Kai had the feeling that if Grandmaster Ma Fan and the other Artifact Refining Great Grandmaster were the ones to refine these puppets, they might be able to exude the aura of an Eighth-Order Division Commander.
In any case, regardless of how powerful the aura the puppets exuded, their foundation remained the same. They were still weak and useless existences that would be destroyed by any random blow from a Low-Rank Black Ink Clansman.
Another half a year later, Yang Kai had refined almost 80 of these puppets. All of them had been stored inside a single Space Ring, ready to be delivered to the higher-ups at any time.
After sailing for over a year, the Great Evolution Army had finally arrived within the Great Evolution Theatre. They would be able to see Great Evolution Pass from a distance if they continued marching forward for another two or three months.
At this time, the Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies began to reduce the size of their formation. They used the power of various artifacts and Spirit Arrays to conceal the whereabouts of the 30,000 troops and in addition, many teams of scouts were dispatched to investigate the route ahead and prevent any possibilities that their presence might be revealed.
At the same time, the higher-ups suddenly issued another confusing order for collection. The last order for collection from the higher-ups had been to gather the various materials required for the refinement of the puppets. This time around, the order for collection was to gather spare clothing. They were neither limited to gender nor body shape or size. It was acceptable as long as the clothing could be worn.
Combined with the order to refine the puppets in large quantities, many people were starting to understand the intentions of the higher-ups. First, it was collecting the materials to refine large amounts of humanoid puppets, then it was collecting various kinds of clothing. Their intentions no longer required much explanation at this point.
Those puppets were going to be used as some kind of ruse. Every one of those puppets exuded the aura of a Fifth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master and above. It was conceivable that the Puppet Army would seem extremely imposing when gathered in one place. At the right time and the right place, they would easily be able to attract the full attention of the Black Ink Clan.
Meanwhile, the Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies would take advantage of this opportunity to take action.
Although there were speculations about the purpose of these puppets, it was unfortunate that Yang Kai and the others could not figure out the where and how these puppets were going to be used.
Truthfully speaking, these puppets would easily be seen through if they were observed closely. While they could move around as smoothly as a real person and exude the aura of an Open Heaven Realm Master, that would only fool others when they were far away. However, just the Open Heaven Realm aura exuded by these puppets alone would likely be enough for them to be mistaken for a real Army if they were dressed in proper clothes and seen from a distance.
The Army had already stepped foot into the Great Evolution Theatre, so there was a chance of encountering the Black Ink Clan at any moment. The 30,000 troops prepared themselves for battle and conserved their energy so that they were ready for the possibility of war.
The members responsible for controlling the various Spirit Arrays and artifacts on the Squad Class Warships were carefully inspecting their weapons to ensure that there were no issues before the battle began.
The Great Evolution Army progressed through the void as silently as a phantom, exuding a chilling aura.
Upon receiving a summons from Xiang Shan, Yang Kai came to the Purifying Black Ink Battleship in the middle of the Army once more. The Old Ancestor and the two Army Commanders were gathered together as though they were waiting for him to arrive.
After Yang Kai greeted them, Xiang Shan got straight to the point, “We have a mission for you!”
“Please give me your instructions, Sir!” Yang Kai cupped his fist.
Xiang Shan said, “If we march forward for another two months, we will reach Great Evolution Pass. I want you to circle around ahead and search for the Great Evolution Northern and Southern Armies on the other side of Great Evolution Pass.”
At the moment, the Great Evolution Army had been split into two parts. One part was the Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies that had gathered at Wind and Cloud Pass, while the other part was the Great Evolution Northern and Southern Armies that had gathered at Azure Void Pass.
There were two reasons for this deployment. The first reason was that Wind and Cloud Pass and Azure Void Pass had always been besieged by larger than normal Black Ink Armies. If the Great Evolution Army assembled at both these two Great Passes, then they could easily break these sieges. The second reason was that half of the troops from the Great Evolution Army came from these two Great Passes.
Both Wind and Cloud Pass and Azure Void Pass had each dispatched 15,000 troops each to cobble together the Great Evolution Army of 60,000 troops. Therefore, the Great Evolution Army was bound to depart from these two Great Passes and advance together regardless of the circumstances.
That was what Yang Kai understood. What he didn’t know was that the two Armies departing from different Great Passes had originally agreed to march towards Great Evolution Pass at full speed so that they could arrive as soon as possible and join forces to launch a coordinated attack.
However, the Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies had encountered the Black Ink Clan reinforcement Army from Great Evolution Pass along their march. That had given Xiang Shan the idea for a better strategy, and he quickly made various arrangements during the march.
If there were changes to the original plan, then it was only natural to inform the Great Evolution Northern and Southern Armies about the changes so that they were not completely blindsided by the actions of the Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies.
The inconvenience of communication on the battlefield could lead to extremely large losses.
Since they wanted to inform the Great Evolution Northern and Southern Armies about the changes, they had to choose a suitable candidate for the task. For Xiang Shan, the first person that came to mind was Yang Kai.
Yang Kai was proficient in the Dao of Space, and as a result, his speed was something that even an Eighth-Order Master would not be able to match. Even if he ran into a Territory Lord on this journey, he would not be in danger as long as he was careful.
Not to mention, Xiang Shan did not know the current whereabouts of the Great Evolution Northern and Southern Armies even though he had a prior agreement with their Army Commanders. If he sent somebody else, they might need to spend time searching slowly.
On the contrary, the situation would be different if he sent Yang Kai on this trip. That was because all the Universe Arrays on the Purifying Black Ink Battleships of each Great Pass had been installed by Yang Kai himself. He had a unique advantage when it came to searching for the Great Evolution Northern and Southern Armies.
After Xiang Shan explained his reasons to Yang Kai, the latter naturally did not refuse.
“I exchanged communication artifacts with the Great Evolution Northern and Southern Armies in the past. As long as we are within a certain distance of each other, we will be able to contact each other. But, there’s no need to go to such trouble to search for them. The Great Evolution Northern and Southern Armies brought their Purifying Black Ink Battleships along, so when the time comes, you will only need to use the Universe Transference Law to arrive directly at their side,” Xiang Shan explained.
Yang Kai nodded, “Junior understands.”
Liu Zhi Ping added, “Just in case, you should bring the communication artifact with you. Having an extra method of communication will give you an extra layer of guarantee!”
Since she had already said so, Xiang Shan did not object to her suggestion. She thus handed a Communication Bead to Yang Kai, which he carefully stored away.
“When you locate the Great Evolution Northern and Southern Armies, tell them that there have been changes to the original plan. The Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies will be taking action to draw the Black Ink Clan’s attention as we charge straight into the Black Ink Clan’s territory. I’m certain that the Black Ink Clan at Great Evolution Pass will receive news about the attack when the fighting breaks out. It would be great if the Black Ink Clan at Great Evolution Pass did not take any action, but that is unlikely, so, the Northern and Southern Armies need to intercept the enemy once the Black Ink Clan leaves Great Evolution Pass.”
Yang Kai was extremely surprised by those words, [Is the Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies planning to attack the Black Ink Clan’s territory?]
He had always assumed that the goal of this campaign was to retake Great Evolution Pass, so he never imagined that Xiang Shan’s plan would be so bold.
Upon further consideration though, this plan was clearly more beneficial. If the Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies attacked the Black Ink Clan’s territory, the Black Ink Clan at Great Evolution Pass would not be able to remain still once they received the news. They would surely head out to provide reinforcements, and at that time, the Great Evolution Northern and Southern Armies would make their move and catch the enemy by surprise. This approach was clearly much better than attacking Great Evolution Pass directly.
Yang Kai initially had some worries regarding this matter. The Black Ink Clan had taken over Great Evolution Pass some 30,000 years ago, so they were bound to have prepared various defensive measures. If the Humans had attacked the Great Pass head on, they would surely have suffered great losses.
On the contrary, the situation would be different if they lured the snake out of its hole in this manner. Without Great Evolution Pass for protection, the Black Ink Clan would lose a huge advantage in this battle.
If the Humans could obliterate all the Black Ink Clan at Great Evolution Pass, they would be able to retake Great Evolution Pass with ease. It could even be said that if they could beat the Black Ink Clan in the Great Evolution Theatre half to death, then the Great Evolution Army would gain ample time to establish a stable foothold in Great Evolution Pass after they retook it.
Following the various thoughts that ran through his mind, Yang Kai vaguely understood Xiang Shan’s plan and couldn’t help admiring the foresight of the Army Commander.
“Inform them that there’s no need to provide aid to the Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies. They only need to keep the Black Ink Clan at Great Evolution Pass contained and kill as many enemies as possible to ensure we aren’t attacked from the rear.”
“Yes!” Yang Kai acknowledged the order.
“If you don’t have anything to prepare, then please set off immediately.”
It was true that Yang Kai had nothing to prepare, but the hundred or so puppets that he refined previously were still inside his Space Ring, so he immediately took it out and handed it to Xiang Shan. Then, he cupped his fist in farewell, “Junior will depart right now.”
“Be careful, and stay safe!” The Old Ancestor, who had remained silent the entire time, suddenly urged.
Yang Kai nodded and flashed out of the Purifying Black Ink Battleship.
There was no need to inform Dawn. Even without him as the Squad Leader, Feng Ying and the others would be perfectly fine; after all, they were all people who had spent hundreds, if not thousands of years on the Black Ink Battlefield.
Manipulating Space Principles, Yang Kai’s figure flickered and disappeared out of sight. When he looked back again, he could no longer see the Great Eastern and Western fleets. There were various artifacts and barriers to conceal their whereabouts, so it was impossible to discover them unless one was close enough.
Yang Kai did not linger. Making use of Instantaneous Movement over and over again, his figure flashed through the void without pause.
According to the information given by Xiang Shan, the marching speed of the Great Evolution Northern and Southern Armies was probably faster than that of the Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies.
Yang Kai guessed that the Great Evolution Northern and Southern Armies were about to arrive in the vicinity of Great Evolution Pass; however, they would never carry out any rash actions before receiving contact from the Eastern and Western Armies. Hiding in the shadows and observing the situation was definitely the safest method.
What he needed to do at this moment was circle around Great Evolution Pass, locate the Great Evolution Northern and Southern Armies, and deliver Xiang Shan’s message.
After Yang Kai departed, the conversation continued inside the Purifying Black Ink Battleship, with Liu Zhi Ping saying, “It’s almost time. We should act according to the plan.”
Xiang Shan nodded, “Collect all the puppets.”
The order was conveyed to the others and soon, all the Artifact Refiners delivered the puppets they refined during the past year to the Purifying Black Ink Battleship. The puppets were personally inspected and counted by Ma Fan himself.
There were more than 1,000 Artifact Refiners, including two Great Grandmasters and 50 Grandmasters, so the results of the past year could be said to be extremely bountiful. As many as 70,000 puppets had been refined!
Yang Kai alone had refined more than 100 puppets with the other Grandmasters achieving similar results. The two Great Grandmasters had refined even more. Although the number of puppets refined by the Great Masters was slightly lower, refining 70,000 puppets in this timeframe was a terrifying feat nevertheless.
That was a number that was accumulated from piling up various materials, but the preparations did not end there. Every puppet also needed to be charged and activated, which was another huge expense.
It was fortunate that the Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies had brought enough supplies with them when they first set off on this journey to support such profligacy.
It took several days to install energy sources for the tens of thousands of puppets. Afterward, the puppets were divided into five portions and stored into five separate Space Rings. These five Space Rings were carried by five Eighth-Order Division Commanders, who jointly set off in the direction of Great Evolution Pass.
Following the departure of these five Eighth-Order Division Commanders, the huge fleet that had been marching straight towards Great Evolution Pass since they first set sail changed course.
It was also on this day that Zhe Chong Territory Lord, who had been fleeing for more than a year, finally arrived back at Great Evolution Pass.
The reason he was able to arrive at Great Evolution Pass two months earlier than the Great Evolution Army was that he had been acting alone, so it was only natural that his movements were less restricted. He had mustered all his strength to escape back then and subsequently continued to run for his life for the next whole month.
On the other hand, the Great Evolution Army had to maintain their formation, so it stood to reason that their speed could not compare to a lone Territory Lord. Be that as it may, it was the exact situation that Xiang Shan had been anticipating. It was crucial for Zhe Chong to return to Great Evolution Pass ahead of them so that the Black Ink Clan had enough time to make some arrangements.
Zhe Chong was a Territory Lord, but even his complexion was a little haggard at the moment. Travelling through the void for a year was no big deal for a Master in his Realm, so the reason he looked so disheveled was mainly due to the mental stress he had suffered. For some reason, he couldn’t shake the feeling that his pursuers were right behind him.
When Zhe Chong was only a few days away from Wind and Cloud Pass, he was ambushed by a Human Race Army. The 300,000 troops of the Black Ink Army had been completely annihilated, and all other Territory Lords other than him had lost their lives.
However, fleeing for the past year had taken a huge toll on him. He felt as though there was an overwhelming sense of crisis pressing down on him, giving him the illusion that he was constantly being chased. Be that as it may, there were no signs of pursuers no matter how many times he checked his surroundings.
Seeing the majestic Great Pass in front of him once more, Zhe Chong felt as though he had never found a more welcoming sight in his entire life. His tense nerves finally relaxed as soon as he stepped into Great Evolution Pass.
More than 30,000 years had passed since the Black Ink Clan conquered Great Evolution Pass. The troops that generally departed from here to provide reinforcements to the two adjacent Theatres had always been defeated after arriving at Wind and Cloud Pass or Azure Void Pass. There was never once when they were ambushed and completely annihilated by the Humans along the way.
During his escape, Zhe Chong had been wondering about something. He simply could not understand how the Humans at Wind and Cloud Pass could gather the manpower to prepare an ambush in that place.
Logically speaking, the Humans at Wind and Cloud Pass should have been overwhelmed by the siege of the Black Ink Clan Army by now.
After much thought, a possibility occurred to him, one that left him feeling very uneasy.
Great Evolution Pass was originally one of the Great Passes under the Human Race’s control. It had taken countless generations of blood, sweat, and tears from the elites of Great Evolution Paradise to build up the Great Pass little by little. More than 30,000 years ago, this place was not that different from the other Great Passes. Tens of thousands of Human troops had protected this place under the leadership of their Old Ancestor and prevented the Black Ink Clan from taking one step across the boundary.
However, the entire Great Evolution Pass was now shrouded in a layer of dense Black Ink Strength. There was also an enormous Black Ink Nest standing tall in the middle of Great Evolution Pass’ Central Square.
The Black Ink Nest resembled a pitch-black flower bud that was on the verge of blooming. Whenever it contracted and expanded slightly, large amounts of thick Black Ink Strength leaked out from within.
This particular Black Ink Nest was thousands of metres tall, and its base practically occupied the entire Central Square. Looking at it from a distance, it resembled a towering black mountain. It was clearly a Mid-Grade Black Ink Nest.
Black Ink Nests were the foundation of the Black Ink Clan. The presence of a Mid-Grade Black Ink Nest here indicated that this was now the home territory of a Territory Lord. In other words, there was a Territory Lord guarding this place at all times.
This situation was nothing out of the ordinary. Great Evolution Pass was the first and only Great Pass to be conquered by the Black Ink Clan in history, so it was impossible for the Black Ink Clan to neglect it. Even if only to boost morale, a Territory Lord was always standing guard here.
Furthermore, the Territory Lord stationed here was the strongest Territory Lord in the entire Theatre, Hong Di!
It was rumoured that this Territory Lord was only one step away from becoming a Royal Lord. Unfortunately, the rumour had been circulating for tens of thousands of years yet there were no signs of Hong Di advancing so far.
Although there were no signs of his breaking through, it was true that Hong Di Territory Lord was very diligent in his cultivation. Even though he was stationed at Great Evolution Pass, he basically stayed within the Black Ink Nest and borrowed its power to cultivate. All the Black Ink Clansmen under his command believed that he was trying to overcome the last step to become a Royal Lord.
Of course, Hong Di was not the only Territory Lord stationed at Great Evolution Pass after the Black Ink Clan first conquered it. There were also several others besides him. That was because they had been wary of the Human Race trying to retake Great Evolution Pass.
However, more than 30,000 years had passed since then. The Human Race seemed to have little regard for Great Evolution Pass and never showed signs of trying to retake it; therefore, the Black Ink Clan no longer took this matter too seriously. Except for the most powerful Hong Di, who was ordered to remain here, all the other Territory Lords returned to their respective territories.
Leaving the strongest Territory Lord at Great Evolution Pass was part of the precautions taken by the Black Ink Clan. They knew that the Humans would eventually attempt to retake the Great Pass, but they did not know when the counterattack would come.
In this way, Great Evolution Pass became Hong Di’s personal territory. Nevertheless, this place remained very lively since the reinforcement Armies for the Black Ink Clan in the Azure Void Theatre and the Great Evolution Theatre generally gathered and departed from this place.
Roughly three years ago, an Army of 300,000 troops had set off in the direction of Wind and Cloud Pass; hence, Hong Di was very surprised when Zhe Chong suddenly appeared at Great Evolution Pass.
He was not surprised by the fact that Zhe Chong had returned so quickly though, but by the fact that Zhe Chong had returned at all. As the person in charge of Great Evolution Pass, he could easily obtain various pieces of information with the help of Great Evolution Pass.
Likewise, Zhe Chong was also rather taken aback. That was because he basically never saw Hong Di even though he had been to Great Evolution Pass on many occasions. Hong Di had always been in a state of secluded cultivation after all. Many Territory Lords had maliciously speculated about him, wondering whether he had died inside his Black Ink Nest since they had not seen him in so many years.
The two Territory Lords met inside a Grand Hall. Compared to the travel-weary Zhe Chong, Hong Di was undoubtedly full of vigour.
There were no rules for courtesy like those among the Human Race, so after they each took a seat, Hong Di glanced at Zhe Chong and asked probingly, “Did you encounter anything worthy of attention during your deployment?”
He did not ask where the Army of 300,000 troops had gone or why Zhe Chong was the only one out of a dozen Territory Lords to appear here. Just by looking at Zhe Chong’s miserable appearance, Hong Di had a guess as to what happened. His question was simply to confirm his speculations.
Zhe Chong quickly nodded, “Among a field of universe fragments located only a few days away from Wind and Cloud Pass, we were ambushed by the Humans. They were led by a Ninth-Order Old Ancestor and had some 50 to 60 Eighth-Order Masters with them! Our Army was no match for them, and almost everyone was slaughtered on the spot. I was the only one to escape alive!”
Hong Di nodded lightly at those words and revealed an expression that seemed to indicate he had expected as much. The Black Ink Clan Army of 300,000 troops had almost zero chance of survival against such a line-up from the Human Race. Zhe Chong was very lucky to escape and return alive.
Zhe Chong was stunned, “You knew?”
Hong Di waved his hand in denial, “I didn’t know anything, but I did receive news from the Wind and Cloud Theatre approximately one year ago. It was said that an additional Old Ancestor had appeared at Wind and Cloud Pass, along with hundreds of Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters. In the end, even the Royal Lord was severely injured and forced to escape back to the Royal City. The Territory Lords suffered massive casualties, and the Army of several million under their command was all but wiped out. It will be difficult for them to recover without at least a thousand years of recuperation.”
Zhe Chong was shocked to hear the news. He had thought that he was very unlucky, but compared to the fate of his clansmen at Wind and Cloud Theatre, he could be considered quite fortunate.
The Black Ink Clan had originally been suppressing the Human Race in the Wind and Cloud Theatre, but an additional Old Ancestor and hundreds of Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters had suddenly appeared on the battlefield. How could the Black Ink Clan of the Wind and Cloud Theatre possibly withstand such a force?
[Have the Humans gone insane!? Why did they gather so many Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters in one place? Did they abandon the other Great Passes!?]
“Was the Old Ancestor you encountered a woman from the Human Race?” Hong Di asked.
Zhe Chong nodded solemnly, “Indeed!”
Although it was only a brief glimpse at the time, Zhe Chong had definitely seen the appearance of the Human Old Ancestor.
Hong Di said, “In that case, it has been confirmed. The Old Ancestor you encountered is most likely the one who suddenly appeared at Wind and Cloud Pass. The Royal Lords have conferred with each other and confirmed that this woman was originally the Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master protecting Yin-Yang Pass.”
Zhe Chong raged, “If she is the Old Ancestor of Yin-Yang Pass, then why did she suddenly appear at Wind and Cloud Pass!? Are they planning to ignore and disregard the Royal Lord at Yin-Yang Pass!?”
He was lucky to have escaped the notice of that Ninth-Order Master, which allowed him to survive by a narrow margin, but what if he had not been so lucky? He would have suffered the same fate as the other dozen Territory Lords and become nothing more than severed limbs and hashed meat floating about in the void by now.
Zhe Chong had no place to vent all the bitterness and panic he felt while fleeing for his life; furthermore, thinking about how a Territory Lord like him had never been in such a wretched position before and learning that the Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master was somebody from the distant Yin-Yang Pass, he forgot to be mindful of his speech in his annoyance.
“Watch your tongue!” Hong Di glared at Zhe Chong. The prestige of a Black Ink Clan Royal Lord was not something a mere Territory Lord could disparage.
Zhe Chong immediately shrunk his neck. In the end, he heaved a heavy sigh.
Taking pity on Zhe Chong, Hong Di explained the situation, “To tell you the truth, there’s a reason why that Ninth-Order woman from Yin-Yang Pass appeared at Wind and Cloud Pass. It’s because a new Ninth-Order Human has appeared at Yin-Yang Pass. That’s why she could leave with peace of mind.”
Zhe Chong was stunned, “The Human’s gained an additional Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master?”
The Ninth-Order Masters and the Royal Lords were the strongest combatants among the Human Race and the Black Ink Clan. The addition or loss of even one of them was something that could shake the entire Black Ink Battlefield. That was why Zhe Chong lost his composure when he heard that there was an additional Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master at Yin-Yang Pass.
Hong Di nodded, “When news that the Ninth-Order Old Ancestor from Yin-Yang Pass appeared at Wind and Cloud Pass, the Royal Lord in the Yin-Yang Theatre probed the situation at Yin-Yang Pass and confirmed that there was a Ninth-Order Master there. It seems that one of the Army Commanders at Yin-Yang Pass broke through.”
Zhe Chong immediately gritted his teeth in fury, “The Human Race sure is cunning!”
When a Human advanced from the Eighth-Order to the Ninth-Order, the disturbance caused was extremely large. If they had chosen to advance in the Black Ink Battlefield, then the Black Ink Clan would have known about it a long time ago. Seeing as they suddenly gained a new Ninth-Order Old Ancestor out of nowhere, it could only be assumed that the newly-advanced Master had not chosen to advance on the Black Ink Battlefield.
The Humans had been planning this from the beginning! They secretly nurtured a new Ninth-Order Old Ancestor, which led to the complete defeat of the Black Ink Clan at Wind and Cloud Pass. Zhe Chong had simply gotten involved by extension.
“That can’t be right!” Hong Di suddenly seemed to realise something, and his expression changed slightly, “Zhe Chong, did you say that you were ambushed by the Human Race Army when you were a few days away from Wind and Cloud Pass?”
Zhe Chong nodded, “En.”
“In other words, you encountered each other on the road.”
“Naturally,” he secretly thought to himself, [Why is Hong Di asking such nonsensical questions?]
Hong Di’s expression changed drastically. He had not been surprised by what happened to Zhe Chong because he had already heard about the situation beforehand. The Black Ink Clan Army had suffered a crushing defeat at Wind and Cloud Pass, so he naturally assumed that the reinforcement Army led by Territory Lords like Zhe Chong had also been defeated on that battlefield.
Therefore, he had been slightly surprised to see that Zhe Chong had returned alive. Many Territory Lords had perished in that battle, so Zhe Chong was very lucky to have survived.
Be that as it may, it turned out that the reinforcement Army had not participated in the battle at Wind and Cloud Pass.
It was impossible for the Humans to know about the reinforcement Army dispatched from Great Evolution Pass and set up an ambush in the middle of their route. In other words, it was because Zhe Chong and the others were unlucky that they were ambushed in the first place. They had encountered the Human Race Army that had departed from Wind and Cloud Pass.
But why would an Old Ancestor lead a Human Army out of Wind and Cloud Pass?
“This is bad!” Hong Di abruptly jumped to his feet, “They are coming to attack Great Evolution Pass!”
Zhe Chong frowned, “Do you have evidence?”
The truth was that he had considered this possibility while on the run for his life, but there was no evidence to back up this speculation. Although he had encountered the Human Race Army outside of Wind and Cloud Pass, he could not say that they were planning to attack and retake Great Evolution Pass. That was a huge claim to make, so Zhe Chong had not dared to voice his opinion even though this idea had crossed his mind.
Zhe Chong had originally planned to use the Black Ink Nest at Great Evolution Pass to report his encounter to the Royal Lord; at the same time, he planned to mention his conjecture despite the lack of evidence.
Unfortunately, there were various pros and cons to be considered. If his conjecture was true, then the Black Ink Clan would have time to prepare themselves in advance; however, if he was wrong, then he would definitely be punished. There was also the fact that he had fled the battlefield during his encounter with the Human Race Army. He was bound to suffer horribly if he was simultaneously condemned and punished for both crimes.
Seeing that Hong Di had the same suspicions, Zhe Chong felt a sense of relief. It would save him the trouble of informing the Royal Lord himself.
Hong Di quickly said, “If you consider the timing, you probably encountered the ambush from the Human Race Army after the battle at Wind and Cloud Pass ended. It was also after the battle at Wind and Cloud Pass that the Royal Lord sent me a message, telling me not to enter retreat for the time being. I couldn’t understand why he issued such a strange order at the time, but it would seem that he already anticipated this turn of events!”
The Royal Lord had indeed anticipated this situation.
Hong Di was stationed at Great Evolution Pass, so the only information he could receive was the information circulating within the Great Evolution Theatre. It was also information that the Royal Lord could access, but unlike Hong Di, the Royal Lord had a High-Rank Black Ink Nest. The Royal Lord could communicate with the other Royal Lords with their High-Rank Black Ink Nests and obtain information from the other Theatres.
Hong Di was only aware that the Humans at Wind and Cloud Pass had significantly increased the number of their troops. They also seemed to have welcomed an additional Old Ancestor. However, he was not aware that the Humans at Azure Void Pass had seen a similar increase in troop strength. Although they did not have an Old Ancestor among them, they had mobilised hundreds of Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters. The Black Ink Clan at Azure Void Pass had suffered a crushing defeat as a result.
The Human Race at the two Great Passes neighbouring Great Evolution Pass had shown strange movements at the same time, that was a clear indication that they were plotting something. It was only natural for the Royal Lord to have some guesses. Hence, he immediately sent a message to Hong Di, telling the latter not to enter retreat for the next few years. That was also why Zhe Chong could meet with Hong Di at this moment.
“This is an urgent matter. I must report this information to the Royal Lord immediately.” After saying that, Hong Di rushed out. It was evident that he wanted to borrow the power of the Black Ink Nest to report the information he just received.
Seeing that, Zhe Chong naturally had no reason to stop Hong Di, so he stood up and said, “I’ll go with you.”
There was no telling what the Royal Lord might ask; therefore, it would be easier for him to answer the questions if he were present.
A short while later, Hong Di stood inside the Black Ink Nest and communicated with its consciousness to report all the information he received so far. He originally thought that it would take some time before he received a response, but contrary to his expectations, the Royal Lord responded immediately.
Another short while passed before Hong Di withdrew his consciousness with a solemn expression.
Zhe Chong asked, “What did the Royal Lord say?”
He had wanted to report his experience to the Royal Lord himself, but who could have imagined that the Royal Lord had no intention to question him whatsoever? Zhe Chong did not know what the Royal Lord had said to Hong Di.
Hong Di quickly said, “Our Clan suffered a crushing defeat at Azure Void Pass after the Humans dispatched a large number of reinforcements there. As a result, nearly half the Territory Lords were killed or gravely injured. Although the Royal Lord is safe, he won’t be able to take action within a short period of time.”
Zhe Chong was shocked, “Are you saying that something similar happened at Azure Void Pass too!?”
Hong Di nodded heavily, “So, the Royal Lord speculates that the Humans might be coming to retake Great Evolution Pass! Zhe Chong, the Royal Lord commands you to return to your territory as soon as possible and gather an Army in order to reinforce the defences at Great Evolution Pass!”
“Are they really coming?” Zhe Chong felt a little faint. For more than 30,000 years, the Humans had been ignoring the loss of Great Evolution Pass; even so, the Black Ink Clan had always known that the Humans would never abandon Great Evolution Pass entirely. They would come back to retake the Pass one day, but the Black Ink Clan never expected the wait to last 30,000 years, “I understand. I will return to my territory immediately.”
A short while later, Zhe Chong’s figure transformed into a small Black Ink Cloud that sped off into the void. He secretly rejoiced that he had returned quickly. According to his estimations, it would still take some time for the Human Race Army to arrive even if they were coming to attack Great Evolution Pass; therefore, he would have enough time to make preparations. In fact, all the Territory Lords in the Great Evolution Theatre would have ample time to prepare themselves for the difficulties ahead.
At the same time, inside Great Evolution Pass, Hong Di issued various orders to his subordinates. Numerous Black Ink Clan squads scattered across the void in two separate directions, tasked with searching for possible movements of the Humans from Wind and Cloud Pass and Azure Void Pass.
Unfortunately, this endeavour not only took time, but also required a touch of luck. If the Humans intended to retake Great Evolution Pass, they were bound to act with utmost secrecy. It would not be easy to discover their whereabouts.
Great Evolution Pass was not the only place to take action. All the Territory Lords in the Great Evolution Theatre had received orders from the Royal Lord. They had been tasked with gathering the Armies under their command in the shortest time possible. As such, all the Black Ink Clansmen in the Great Evolution Theatre took action almost immediately. The ominous feeling that a storm was approaching enveloped the entire Theatre.
Hong Di initially thought that it would be difficult to receive news about the Human Race Army, but contrary to his expectations, it only took the Black Ink Clan search teams that he previously dispatched six days to return with intelligence to report. They had mysteriously lost contact with one of the Black Ink Clans squads that set off in the direction of Azure Void Pass.
The loss was not great, just a single Feudal Lord along with some High-Rank and Low-Rank Clansmen. Nevertheless, this anomaly quickly caught Hong Di’s attention.
It was impossible for a search party he sent out to disappear for no reason. For the past 30,000 years, the Black Ink Clan had never encountered any enemies in the vicinity of Great Evolution Pass. The only possibility was that the Black Ink Clan squad had discovered the hiding place of the Human Race Army and were eliminated as a result. Therefore, he sent out more people to investigate the region where the first team had gone missing and simultaneously reported this information to the Royal Lord.
At a place located several days away from Great Evolution Pass in the direction of Azure Void Pass, a large fleet concealed the traces of their whereabouts and quietly remained hidden in the void with the help of various artifacts and arrays. The method of concealment they deployed was very clever and sophisticated, so as long as nobody came within 1,000 kilometres of the various artifacts and arrays, they would remain invisible.
However, there was nothing they could do if the Black Ink Clan came too close. Unlike with individual cultivators, it was not easy to conceal the whereabouts of such a large-scale fleet; after all, a lone cultivator could at least use some obscure Secret Techniques to conceal themselves, whereas a giant group of Warships could not be missed.
This fleet was none other than the Great Evolution Northern and Southern Armies that had departed from Azure Void Pass.
Just as Xiang Shan had expected, the Great Evolution Northern and Southern Armies had marched at a faster pace compared to the Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies. They arrived in the vicinity of Great Evolution Pass half a month ago. Needless to say, they would never act rashly before they made contact with the Eastern and Western Armies. That was why they stopped at a location approximately three days away from Great Evolution Pass to wait for news from Xiang Shan.
This location was neither too close nor too far from the Great Evolution Pass. Under the premise that they could effectively conceal their whereabouts, this distance would also allow them to easily communicate with the Eastern and Western Armies.
Unfortunately, the Northern and Southern Armies had extremely terrible luck. Their large fleet was carefully hiding in the void when a Black Ink Clan squad suddenly barged into their defense perimeter. The void was so vast that 1,000 kilometres was truly not far; therefore, the two Army Commanders of the Great Evolution Northern and Southern Armies simply could not understand how the Black Ink Clan could randomly bump into them. They didn’t even know whether to consider those Black Ink Clansmen lucky or unlucky.
Needless to say, a mere squad of Black Ink Clansmen led by a lone Feudal Lord was nothing to the Northern and Southern Armies. They weren’t even capable of filling the gaps between the Army’s teeth.
After swiftly annihilating the Black Ink Clan squad, the Great Evolution Northern and Southern Armies deliberately changed their location just to be safe, shifting the fleet’s hiding spot to a place several million kilometres away. Be that as it may, they just received another report from the patrols that another Black Ink Clan team had stumbled upon their location again.
The Southern Army’s Army Commander, Ou Yang Lie, the Northern Army’s Army Commander, Mi Jing Lun, and several other Eighth-Order Division Commanders gathered together aboard the main Purifying Black Ink Battleship.
It was clearly not a coincidence for them to be found by two Black Ink squads in succession. There were no such coincidences in the world.
“What do you think?” Ou Yang Lie was a red-haired old man. Just from his name alone, one could tell that he had a fiery personality. Moreover, there was a hint of impatience colouring his brow while he was speaking.
How could the others not know the reason for his impatience? The main reason was that the Great Evolution Northern and Southern Armies were already in position, but there was still no news from the Eastern and Western Armies. There was no way to tell where the Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies were currently located.
Ou Yang Lie could not wait to attack Great Evolution Pass, so he was naturally impatient at this delay.
An Eighth-Order Division Commander spoke up, “According to the scouts who were previously dispatched, there seems to have been an increase in the number of Black Ink Clansmen in the vicinity recently. Moreover, they seem to be searching for something.”
Ou Yang Lie coldly snorted, “What else can they be searching for? Clearly, they’re looking for us. It looks like the news that our Human Race Army is planning to retake Great Evolution Pass has been exposed.”
The Great Evolution Northern Army’s Army Commander, Mi Jing Lun, had a scholarly appearance. He had a feathered helmet on his head and a feather fan in his hand. Although he was not young, he had the appearance of a fair-skinned youth. Anybody who saw him for the first time would never associate him with the post of Army Commander.
He smiled lightly, “It’s within our expectations. The movements at Wind and Cloud Pass and Azure Void Pass were not small after all. It’s only natural for the Black Ink Clan to guess our intentions.”
Ou Yang Lie raged, “I want to know where Xiang Shan led the Eastern and Western Armies. We’ve already been here for some time, so why are they nowhere to be seen!? Are they planning to give up on Great Evolution Pass!?”
Mi Jing Lun persuaded earnestly, “Please calm down, Brother Ou Yang. Judging by the number of days, the Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies should have arrived in the vicinity of Great Evolution Pass by now. I’m sure somebody will come and contact us soon.”
He knew that Ou Yang Lie was upset that the Old Ancestor had appointed Xiang Shan as the Great Evolution Eastern Army’s Army Commander. Combined with the current situation, Ou Yang Lie couldn’t hide his contempt for Xiang Shan in his words.
“What we need to do right now is to wait. But, since the Black Ink Clan has taken precautions, it isn’t safe for our Northern and Southern Armies to remain here. This place is just three days away from Great Evolution Pass, which if the enemy is alerted is clearly too close. We should withdraw to a position further away.”
Ou Yang Lie said nothing, so a Division Commander inquired, “Senior Brother Mi, how far back do you think we should retreat?”
Mi Jing Lun pondered for a moment, “We should retreat another two day’s distance, so that we are five days away from Great Evolution Pass; otherwise, the Northern and Southern Armies may not be able to respond in time if the Royal Lord decides to take action.”
The other Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Division Commanders who were participating in the strategy meeting nodded in agreement. Then, Mi Jing Lun glanced at Ou Yang Lie.
Ou Yang Lie said, “We’ll do as you say. Although the Army can withdraw, we will still need to send somebody to approach Great Evolution Pass in order to better monitor the movements there.”
Mi Jing Lun nodded at those words, “Your words make sense, Brother Ou Yang. Do you have any candidates in mind?”
Ou Yang Lie stood up and said, “I’ll go myself.”
Mi Jing Lun heaved a sigh in his heart, knowing that he could not dissuade the other party. Ou Yang Lie had a rather irritable personality, and the more one tried to dissuade him, the more counterproductive it would be. In any case, it was not dangerous for him to go in person. He was an Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master after all, so it would not be difficult for him to conceal his presence, unlike a large fleet that could not remain hidden no matter what they did.
Even if Ou Yang Lie went to scout in person, the Great Evolution Northern and Southern Armies would still have Mi Jing Lun in command, so nothing would go wrong. It was just that Ou Yang Lie could not be allowed to go alone. There was no saying what trouble he might cause with his violent temper otherwise.
For that reason, Mi Jing Lun said, “You should bring your Disciple with you, Brother Ou Yang. That way, you can send him back to inform us if you discover anything.”
Ou Yang Lie immediately turned to look at Mi Jing Lun, “What’s wrong? Are you afraid I might cause trouble? Are you trying to get my Disciple to watch over me?”
Mi Jing Lun burst out laughing, “How could I possibly dare to do something like that?”
Although he said that, it was obvious he had that exact intention in mind.
Ou Yang Lie considered the suggestion for a moment and coldly snorted, “Fine. I’ll bring him with me.”
Honestly speaking, Mi Jing Lun was not the only one who was worried that he might cause a ruckus, Ou Yang Lie was worried that he might cause a ruckus too. Under normal circumstances, his strength as an Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master would have prevented anything too troublesome from occurring even if he kicked up a storm; however, things were different this time. The Great Evolution Northern and Southern Armies had not gotten in touch with the Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies, so they had yet to discuss their deployment strategy to retake Great Evolution Pass in detail. If he were to stir up trouble at this time, his actions would affect many other people as a whole. In the worst-case scenario, he might even disrupt the plans of the entire Army.
If he brought his Disciple along with him, then his Disciple would act as a constraint. Ou Yang Lie would first need to carefully weigh his actions before he caused any trouble.
“Brat, did you hear? Come take a walk with your Master.” He turned to look to the side.
There was a young man leaning against a nearby pillar, with his arms folded in front of his chest. The two Army Commanders and several Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Division Commanders in charge of deciding the movements of the Army were currently in deep discussion with each other. In contrast, this young man looked extremely bored and almost seemed as though he was about to fall asleep while listening to their discussion. He would yawn widely from time to time until his eyes were watery.
This young man was in the Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm, so logically speaking, his cultivation should have allowed him to break free from the constraints of ordinary mortals. It should be impossible for him to feel sleepy or yawn. Be that as it may, he not only yawned, but also yawned without stopping. He looked so drowsy that he might fall asleep at any moment.
Everybody else in the hall was in the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm, and he was the only Seventh-Order Junior present.
Mi Jing Lun and the other Eighth-Order Masters were not surprised by this youth’s behaviour though. Rather, it could be said that they had long gotten accustomed to it.
Speaking of which, Ou Yang Lie and his Disciple were definitely a pair of weirdos. The Master had a fiery personality, and his general behaviour was rather impulsive even though he was an Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master. Therefore, it was rather surprising for him to take in such a lazy Disciple who seemed so laid back and apathetic to almost everything.
Their personalities could be said to be complete opposites of each other, but Ou Yang Lie had very high expectations of this Disciple of his and usually spoiled him rotten. It was for these reasons that he always brought his Disciple along with him whenever he felt that he might act recklessly and get into trouble. That was because he would constantly remind himself to act extremely carefully so as not to cause any trouble when his Disciple was by his side; after all, his Disciple might also get dragged into the mess if he caused a ruckus!
The young man stared blankly ahead and yawned as usual. Meanwhile, Ou Yang Lie did not receive a reply to his question.
Mi Jing Lun smiled bitterly, [The bad habit of Brother Ou Yang’s Disciple, who cultivates the Divine Wandering, is another problem in itself! Is it really okay for the two of them to act together?]
“Martial Nephew Gong, your Master is speaking to you,” one of the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Division Commanders reminded helplessly.
“Disciple is awake!” Gong Lian hurriedly straightened up and lowered his head, “Honoured Master, what orders do you have for me?”
“Bullshit! What orders!?” Ou Yang Lie became impatient and walked out in large strides. When he walked by Gong Lian, he simply grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and dragged him along, “Come with me!”
Afterward, he left the Purifying Black Ink Battleship in quick steps, Ou Yang Lie’s voice drifted over from a distance, “Brother Mi, please just act according to plan. If this Old Master obtains any information, I will send my Disciple back to inform you.”
Mi Jing Lun and the other Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Division Commanders exchanged a glance with each other and shook their heads helplessly.
After a while, the huge fleet retreated slowly as previously discussed. They moved back by another two days’ distance in order to prevent any unexpected incidents.
In the void, Ou Yang Lie used various Secret Techniques to conceal his and Gong Lian’s auras. Be that as it may, his speed was not slow in the slightest as he headed in the direction of Great Evolution Pass.
Meanwhile, Gong Lian neither resisted nor struggled. He simply allowed himself to be carried in that manner and did not look disgruntled at all. In fact, judging by his expression, he seemed accustomed to such behaviour. For him, it was great that he didn’t need to use his own strength to travel. What did it matter even if he was in an unsightly posture?
Fortunately, he did at least ask a single question, “Honoured Master, where are we going?”
“We are going to spy on the Black Ink Clan,” Ou Yang Lie replied.
Gong Lian grunted in response and said nothing else.
While Ou Yang Li and his Disciple were travelling through the void and quickly approaching Great Evolution Pass, Yang Kai was also charging through the void from the opposite side.
Yang Kai’s journey required him to cross Great Evolution Pass and head towards its opposite side to search for the whereabouts of the Northern and Southern Armies and report Xiang Shan’s intentions to them.
There were two possible routes in order to cross Great Evolution Pass. One was to go around from the front, and the other was to go around the back.
According to the map of the entire Black Ink Battlefield that Ding Yao had shown him back at Blue Sky Pass previously, the boundary between the Black Ink Battlefield and the 3,000 Worlds was connected by a single path. This path was none other than the No-Return Pass guarded by the Dragon and Phoenix Clans!
With the No-Return Pass as the centre, the Human Race had established more than 100 Great Passes to form an outer defence perimeter. The distribution of these Great Passes in the Black Ink Battlefield resembled an inverted semi-circle that encompassed the No-Return Pass at its centre. In other words, the No-Return Pass was located behind all the Great Passes. If one were to set off from any of the Great Passes and travelled in the direction of the 3,000 Worlds, they would eventually arrive at the No-Return Pass.
More than 30,000 years ago, the area covered by the semi-circle was regarded as an absolutely safe area for the Human Race. That was because this area was located at the rear of every Great Pass. As long as the Great Passes stood strong, it was impossible for the Black Ink Clan to set foot in the area within the semi-circle.
After Great Evolution Pass was captured by the Black Ink Clan though, the Black Ink Clan finally had the opportunity to experience the noble bearing of the No-Return Pass. However, the Black Ink Clan at Great Evolution Pass no longer dared to target the No-Return Pass again after suffering heavy losses from multiple attempts. Even though they remained active around Great Evolution Pass, in the direction of the No-Return Pass, their numbers were few and they generally did not venture too far away from the Pass.
Needless to say, Yang Kai chose the easier option to get around Great Evolution Pass.
The area within the semi-circle was relatively safer as there was a much lower chance of encountering the Black Ink Clan there. If he went around the front of Great Evolution Pass instead, he might run into various troubles as a result.
At a sudden moment, Yang Kai abruptly came to a halt and turned his head to look in a certain direction. There seemed to be a mysterious force coming from that direction that called to him and made him burn with excitement. Even the Dragon Vein in his body seemed to boil, and his blood began to flow at a faster rate than usual.
Yang Kai immersed his mind into the feeling and perceived the situation. It didn’t take long for him to understand what was happening. The source of that mysterious force was the place where the Dragon Altar was located! Thanks to the Dragon Vein in his body, Yang Kai naturally formed a connection with the Dragon Altar.
More importantly, the No-Return Pass was also located in that direction! The No-Return Pass was guarded by the Dragon and Phoenix Clans. Could it be that the Dragon Altar was at the No-Return Pass?
Ever since he came to the Black Ink Battlefield, Yang Kai had always wanted to visit the Dragon Clan. After all, he had a Dragon Vein in him, and there were also many other Dragon Clan members in Void Land. If he could locate the Dragon Clan on this side, he would be able to cultivate his Dragon Vein better in the future. Unfortunately, his wish had yet to come true.
All the public knew was that the Dragon Altar was part of the 36 Cave Heavens, but they did not know where it was located. According to the rumours, the Dragon Altar was an ethereal place that was impossible for anybody to enter unless they were part of the Dragon Clan.
The Elders of the Cave Heavens and Paradises most likely knew the secret of the Dragon Altar and the No-Return Pass. Be that as it may, they would never publicise this knowledge.
Yang Kai once visited the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land in the Shattered Heaven, where he was able to experience the past and witnessed an ancient battle. In that ancient battle, the Dragon Emperor and Phoenix Empress of the time had joined forces to seal and suppress the Black Ink Giant Spirit God. He also obtained the Dragon Clan’s Sacred Treasure known as the Crystal Palace in the Black Ink Sealing Land.
However, there were no Dragon Clan members or pure-blooded Phoenix Clan members in the Divine Spirit Ancestral Land. The Divine Spirits in the Ancestral Land didn’t even know anything about the ancient battle that took place all those eons ago. It was possible that the Dragon and Phoenix Clans had left the Ancestral Land after that great battle to guard the No-Return Pass.
Yang Kai had failed to sense the existence of the Dragon Altar back at Blue Sky Pass because the distance between them had been too great. Now that he had deliberately taken a large detour around the rear of Great Evolution Pass though, he finally had the opportunity to perceive the Dragon Altar. It was just that his current position was very far from the No-Return Pass, so the resulting connection he felt was not that strong.
Glancing in the direction of the No-Return Pass, Yang Kai suppressed the excitement boiling in his Dragon Vein and continued on his journey. The Dragon Altar was a place he was bound to visit one day, but now was not the time! He had more important things to do right now.
His journey went smoothly without encountering any Black Ink Clansmen; hence, he boldly travelled by manipulating Space Principles without fear of being discovered.
On the other side of Great Evolution Pass, Ou Yang Lie carried his Disciple, Gong Lian, and snuck towards Great Evolution Pass. Along the way, he found a large number of Black Ink Clan squads searching in all directions. Of course, it was not difficult for him to avoid these Black Ink Clansmen with his powerful cultivation and skills.
Gong Lian continued to yawn throughout the journey with a drowsy look in his eyes. Anybody who saw him would think that he was about to fall asleep at any moment. In reality, he had always maintained such behaviour without changing. Even though he was being carried by his Honoured Master, he did not bother to resist at all.
A few days later, Ou Yang Lie finally arrived at the periphery of Great Evolution Pass. From where he stood in the void, he could clearly see the majestic Great Pass towering upward in the void. He couldn’t help sighing when he saw the Great Pass that was completely shrouded in Black Ink Strength.
This place used to be part of the territory that belonged to the Human Race, but it was now dominated by the Black Ink Clan, which made him feel indignant. As a result, he was tempted to rush over and attack the Black Ink Clan in order to reclaim the Pass and wash away the shame of losing it.
Nevertheless, it was just a thought. No matter how rash his personality, Ou Yang Lie knew that nothing good would happen if he attacked the Great Pass alone. They would only stand a chance to reclaim Great Evolution Pass if the entire Army took action.
While this position was considered quite close, he had yet to reach the limits of his ability. Ou Yang Lie was about to head closer when Gong Lian, who had been carried all this time, abruptly reacted. Gong Lian widened his eyes in surprise, the usual lethargic expression on his face vanishing in an instant. More importantly, he involuntarily shuddered in fear.
Ou Yang Lie had been carrying Gong Lian all this while, so he immediately noticed the sudden change in his Disciple. Just as he was about to inquire about the situation, he heard Gong Lian sending a Divine Sense transmission to him, “Honoured Master, I suddenly feel a little scared.”
He frowned, “Are you certain?”
Gong Lian nodded solemnly.
Ou Yang Lie’s expression immediately turned serious.
There was no denying that his Disciple had extremely outstanding aptitude as Gong Lian had advanced directly to the Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm. Even among the Cave Heavens and Paradises, he was a rare talent with the hope of reaching the Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm one day. Why else would Ou Yang Lie value him so much?
What’s more, Gong Lian’s cultivation speed was astoundingly fast. It had been less than 1,000 years since he advanced to the Open Heaven Realm, but he had already reached the peak of the Seventh-Order and was only one step away from the Eighth-Order.
Although his cultivation was one step lower than Ou Yang Lie’s, he had a unique ability, and that was that his perception of danger was much more acute than ordinary people. His perception was not so much a skill as an innate talent; therefore, it was impossible for others to imitate. Gong Lian might not know what triggered it, but he could always predict approaching danger in advance. The greater the crisis he faced, the stronger the perception he experienced.
Similar incidents had occurred in the past and Gong Lian had relied on his innate talent to avoid many dangers along his cultivation path; however, there had never been an incident where his perception of danger had caused him to panic.
Being aware of his Disciple’s innate talent, Ou Yang Lie immediately knew that something was very wrong when Gong Lian trembled in fear and claimed that he was scared. Between the both of them, one of them was in the peak of the Seventh-Order and the other was in the Eighth-Order. Even if they encountered the Black Ink Clan Army, they would be able to escape alive as long as they were not completely surrounded by the enemy.
For that reason, the source of danger that Gong Lian sensed was most likely the Royal Lord! Only the Royal Lord, who was comparable to a Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Old Ancestor in terms of strength, could frighten him so badly.
Ou Yang Lie did not sense the aura of the Royal Lord, but he did not hold any doubts towards his Disciple’s ability; hence, he immediately sought a hiding spot. It just so happened that there were some asteroids of varying sizes nearby, so he quickly sped towards one and hastily set up a Spirit Array to conceal their auras.
Similarly, Gong Lian stopped being lazy and lent a hand in the preparations.
Thanks to the joint efforts of both Master and Disciple, they completed a Spirit Array in less than half cup of tea’s time. Ou Yang Lie swiftly activated the Spirit Array after they slipped inside without delay.
Almost at the same time, a majestic Will swept past their hiding place and spread out into the distance at a rapid rate. It was immediately followed by a gigantic cloud of darkness that came from the depths of the void and rushed past them, no more than 10,000 kilometres away from their hiding spot.
Ou Yang Lie lowered his eyes and did not look in that direction; then, he stealthily sent a transmission, “What do you see?”
In stark contrast to Ou Yang Lie’s cautious actions, Gong Lian’s current behaviour could only be said to be extremely bold and reckless. Gong Lian squinted his eyes slightly, his gaze slowly becoming slack again as he watched the gigantic figure rushing into Great Evolution Pass.
From beginning to end, the gigantic figure did not show any reaction whatsoever despite being watched so fixedly. This could be said to be another of Gong Lian’s unique abilities. If anybody else were watching that figure, it would have been difficult for them to escape notice even if they were in the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm; however, Gong Lian was different as he could practically reduce his presence to the point where he seemingly didn’t exist.
“It’s the Royal Lord!” Gong Lian replied via transmission.
Both Master and Disciple would not have avoided the Royal Lord’s perception if Gong Lian had not warned Ou Yang Lie in time; in fact, they would likely have been exposed immediately. There was no doubt that they would be killed on the spot if they were seen.
“Tsk…” Even though he had already formed a guess in his heart, Ou Yang Lie couldn’t help clicking his tongue in frustration when he heard Gong Lian’s reply and he scolded irritably, “Xiang Shan’s blunder has caused us to miss a great opportunity to win this battle!”
The Royal Lord had come from deep within the Black Ink Clan’s territory; in other words, there was no Royal Lord guarding Great Evolution Pass previously. If the Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies under Xiang Shane’s command had arrived just a little sooner and joined forces with the Northern and Southern Armies, they would have been able to retake Great Evolution Pass easily with the additional support of a Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Old Ancestor.
Now that the Royal Lord had arrived to guard Great Evolution Pass personally, it would not be easy to retake Great Evolution Pass anymore. Moreover, the Black Ink Clan Army would not be far behind since the Royal Lord had already arrived at Great Evolution Pass.
Sure enough, Black Ink Clan troops were not far from Great Evolution Pass.
Just half a day after the Royal Lord’s arrived at Great Evolution Pass, a Black Ink Clan Army of 20,000 to 30,000 rushed over under the leadership of a Territory Lord. It didn’t take long for many other Territory Lords to arrive in quick succession with their respective troops.
Over the course of three days, Ou Yang Lie watched as dozens of Black Ink Clan Territory Lords arrived with their private armies. At this point, there were as many as 300,000 to 400,000 enemies gathered.
Ou Yang Lie’s expression became solemn as the more prepared the Black Ink Clan was, the harder it would be for the Human Race Army to retake Great Evolution Pass. However, there was still no news about the whereabouts of the Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies led by Xiang Shan.
Several days passed, and during that time, more and more Black Ink Clansmen had gathered in Great Evolution Pass. The busy figures of random Black Ink Clansmen could be seen flitting around Great Evolution Pass at all times. They were setting up various deployments inside the walls in preparation to confront the Human Race Army.
Ten days later, Ou Yang Lie and Gong Lian counted almost 800,000 to 900,000 Black Ink Clansmen at Great Evolution Pass. In addition, there were dozens of Territory Lords and even a Royal Lord assuming command. It could be said that the Black Ink Clan’s deployment at Great Evolution Pass practically left it impenetrable to attack.
“Honoured Master, the situation is not looking good for us!” Even Gong Lian, who often spent his time cultivating the Divine Wandering, could see that the current situation was not good for the Human Race.
Ou Yang Lie remained silent with a sullen expression. The communication device he carried with him to contact the Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies could be used as long as both parties were within a certain distance of each other; however, there had been no contact even up until now.
[Just what is going on with the Eastern and Western Armies!? Why haven’t they contacted me? Could it be that something has happened to them? But, they have the protection of an Old Ancestor, what can possibly happen to them?] Ou Yang Lie simply could not understand the situation.
At Great Evolution Pass, many Territory Lords had gathered together inside the spacious Grand Hall. There was a throne at the highest position, a hideously shaped one made entirely from bones. Even after countless years, the bones continued to exude monstrous ferocity.
After conquering Great Evolution Pass, the Black Ink Clan had collected the corpses of countless Human Masters and used their bones to create this throne. Only the corpses of those in the Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm and above were qualified to be used in its construction.
The throne was immeasurably huge, so it was conceivable just how many bones from the Human Masters had been used to build it at the time. At the same time, it was also a glimpse into how many Human Masters had perished in that battle at Great Evolution Pass.
This was the Black Ink Clan’s spoils of war! Despite being placed here all this time, even Hong Di, who was in charge of overseeing Great Evolution Pass, did not have the qualifications to sit on this throne. It was an exclusive throne specifically for the use of the Royal Lord.
At this moment, the Royal Lord was sitting on this throne. Judging from his appearance alone, he was not very different from the Humans. It was just that his body was several times larger, and he had a pair of jet-black wings on his back.
He propped his face up on one hand and narrowed his eyes slightly, listening to the reports from the Territory Lords.
It was mainly Hong Di’s report. Great Evolution Pass was his home territory after all, so he had previously dispatched many Black Ink Clansmen to investigate the surroundings, so he was now reporting the information he obtained in quick succession.
“Several of our squads have gone missing in the direction of Azure Void Pass. Although I’ve sent more people to investigate their disappearance, the investigation did not reveal any clues. We are fairly certain that those Clansmen encountered Humans and were eliminated. The Human Race Army is most likely hiding somewhere there, but I don’t know their exact location. On the other hand, nothing strange has been detected from the direction of Wind and Cloud Pass. All the scouts we dispatched have returned alive. There have been no losses and they did not discover any traces of an Army there. At the moment, over 30 Territory Lords have arrived at Great Evolution Pass with a force of more than 900,000 troops. The defences of Great Evolution Pass deployed over so many years would surely be enough to stop the invasion of the Human Race Army. It’s no big deal if they don’t come, but if they do, they will not leave this place alive.”
The rest of the Territory Lords cheered loudly in response. Most of them had participated in the battle to conquer Great Evolution Pass more than 30,000 years ago.
Back when the Humans still had control over Great Evolution Pass, the Black Ink Clan had suffered greatly every time they attacked the Great Pass as it acted as a huge defensive fortress. As a result, the Humans often won many battles despite their fewer numbers.
The time had finally come for the Humans to have a taste of the helpless feeling that the Black Ink Clan experienced whenever they attacked the Great Passes; thus, the Territory Lords could not wait to see that scene before their very eyes.
Needless to say, 30 Territory Lords and an Army of more than 900,000 troops were not everything that the Black Ink Clan in the Great Evolution Theatre could muster; in fact, that number was merely half of the troops that the Black Ink Clan could immediately mobilise.
It was not that the Black Ink Clan could not muster more troops, it was just that Great Evolution Pass could not accommodate more people despite its enormous size. An Army of 900,000 troops was more or less the limit. If they added any more troops to the mix, those troops would only become a burden instead of a boon.
That was why the Royal Lord had only ordered 30 Territory Lords and the respective Armies to assemble. As for the other Territory Lords, they were on standby and ready to support Great Evolution Pass at any time.
In reality, there should have been close to 100 Territory Lords in the Great Evolution Theatre; however, they had been tasked with providing reinforcements to Wind and Cloud Pass and the Azure Void Pass in recent years. Almost 10 Territory Lords had died in battle on each side, leading to the loss of nearly 20 Territory Lords.
Consequently, there were only some 70 Territory Lord’s left in the Great Evolution Theatre.
This was not a large number; after all, there were reportedly 60 Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Division Commanders in the Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies alone, with more than 100 Eighth-Order Masters in the entire the Great Evolution Army.
Comparing the number of Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters and Territory Lords, the Human Race had an absolute advantage. This decision had taken into account the dangers and risks of assaulting the Great Pass. It was impossible to reclaim Great Evolution Pass without an absolute advantage over their enemies.
After Hong Di finished his report, the Royal Lord did not respond for a long time and the Territory Lords did not dare to pester him for a response.
A long while passed before the Royal Lord commanded, “Continue investigating. Try to find a way to learn the exact location of the Human Race Army.”
What he could ascertain at this moment was that the Ninth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master came from the direction of Wind and Cloud Pass; in other words, the Human Race Army coming from Azure Void Pass did not have the protection of a Ninth-Order Master.
If he could learn the location of the Human Race Army from Azure Void Pass, then he could take the initiative to attack them. In that way, it would be much easier for him to deal with the Human Race Army from Wind and Cloud Pass.
The Human Race’s decision to split the Army during their march towards Great Evolution Pass would result in their complete defeat. The Black Ink Clan Royal Lord was full of confidence towards this upcoming battle; after all, the situation today was not the same as 30,000 years ago.
“Yes!” Hong Di responded and relayed the orders to his subordinates. It didn’t take long before even more Black Ink Clan squads came out from Great Evolution Pass and split into two directions to investigate and obtain information on the movements of the Human Race Army.
In the void, Yang Kai’s figure flickered constantly as he moved forward rapidly. The huge void was vast and silent with no suitable objects to be used as a reference for the Universe Chart; therefore, he did not know his exact location. It was truly fortunate that he could still use the Universe Array.
Under normal circumstances, those who left behind their Imprint at the Universe Array could use the Universe Transference Law to create a connection to it as long as both were located in the same world. In that way, they could directly teleport themselves back to the Universe Array. It was just that the difference in the teleporting distance would lead to a difference in the pressure that one faced when teleporting themselves. If the pressure was too great, they might end up in an awkward situation where their body is torn apart.
A few days ago, Yang Kai started to use the Universe Transference Law to determine the position of the Universe Array and correct his direction accordingly. Unfortunately, the distance between them was still too large. Even for him, it would be difficult to withstand the burden of teleporting over such a large distance; hence, he had been working on getting closer towards the Universe Array.
All of a sudden, he stopped in his tracks and formed hand seals to activate the Universe Transference Law. A huge array bloomed beneath his feet a moment later, forming a vague connection with something a long way away. It was the place where the Universe Array was located. More importantly, the location of the Universe Array corresponded to none other than the location of the Purifying Black Ink Battleship belonging to the Great Evolution Northern and Southern Armies.
Yang Kai quietly perceived the situation. His current location was still quite far from the location of the Universe Array. An ordinary Seventh-Order Open Heaven Realm Master would not be able to teleport themselves over such a distance safely. Only an Eighth-Order Master could pull off such a feat.
Be that as it may, this was no longer an issue for Yang Kai as he was a Master of the Dao of Space, he thus relaxed his mind and allowed the intangible pulling force to wrap around him. Following a burst of bright light, his figure vanished out of sight.
The Great Evolution Northern and Southern Armies were currently hiding in an area filled with universe fragments. This place was located a full 10-day journey away from Great Evolution Pass!
Ever since their location was first discovered by the Black Ink Clan, the large fleet had changed its hiding spot several times. Unfortunately, it would not take long before their new location was discovered again.
In order to learn the whereabouts of the Human Race Army, the Black Ink Clan had dispatched many search teams as though casting a wide net in the direction of Azure Void Pass.
As a result, the Great Evolution Northern and Southern Armies were forced to retreat again and again until they reached their current position. If they were discovered again, then they would be forced to withdraw even further; after all, they did not have the protection of an Old Ancestor and would be defenceless if the Royal Lord suddenly attacked them. Therefore, it was better for them to stay as far away from Great Evolution Pass as possible for safety’s sake.
On the deck of the Purifying Black Ink Battleship, Mi Jing Lun stood quietly at the bow of the ship with his feather fan in hand as he stared outward in the direction of Great Evolution Pass.
Nearly 10 days had passed since Ou Yang Lie and his Disciple headed towards Great Evolution Pass to spy on the situation. There had been no news from them since their departure, so Mi Jing Lun did not know anything about the situation over there.
What puzzled Mi Jing Lun in particular though was the movements of the Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies. According to the original plan, the Eastern and Western Armies should have arrived in the vicinity of Great Evolution Pass and made contact with the Northern and Southern Armies by now. However, there had been no news from the other side so far.
The communication device was in Ou Yang Lie’s possession, and he was currently located in the vicinity of Great Evolution Pass. If the Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies wanted to contact him, then they would be able to do so directly.
Without the cooperation of the Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies, it would be difficult to achieve victory with the 30,000 troops of the Northern and Southern Armies alone.
It was a pity that there was nothing Mi Jing Lun could do at the moment. He could only do his best to conceal the whereabouts of the Great Evolution Northern and Southern Armies and wait patiently.
At that moment, an unfamiliar aura suddenly appeared on the Purifying Black Ink Battleship and was immediately followed by an uncertain inquiry, “Who are you?”
Mi Jing Lun abruptly turned to look in that direction.
That was where the Space Array was located. Moreover, this Spirit Array was linked to the secret room where the Universe Array was arranged on the Purifying Black Ink Battleship.
If one of the soldiers returned to the Black Ink Battleship with the help of the Universe Transference Law, they would immediately be teleported into the secret room with the Universe Array. It was just that the Purifying Light was sealed inside the secret room, so there was another Space Array inside the secret room that allowed them to be teleported back to the deck of the ship without wasting any Purifying Light.
For that reason, a special guard was tasked with monitoring the corresponding Space Array on the deck. The one who asked the question earlier was none other than the person guarding the Space Array.
[Somebody arrived on the Purifying Black Ink Battleship via the Universe Array!] Mi Jing Lun immediately snapped back to his senses and sent a transmission to the guard, “Quickly bring that person over.”
The guard responded affirmatively and brought a young man to Mi Jing Lun a short while later.
Needless to say, the person who arrived was Yang Kai. Looking at the person with a scholarly appearance in front of him, Yang Kai immediately recognised him and cupped his fist in greeting, “Junior greets Senior Mi!”
Mi Jing Lun was slightly surprised, “Do you know me? I don’t believe we’ve met, have we?”
Yang Kai replied, “No! But, this Junior is familiar with the names of the two Army Commanders of the Great Evolution Northern and Southern Armies. Senior Ou Yang’s name sounds like it belongs to a hot-tempered person, so he would never dress like you. Since you are not Army Commander Ou Yang, then you must be the other Army Commander.”
Mi Jing Lun smiled, “So that’s how it is. You must be Yang Kai, right?”
This time around, it was Yang Kai’s turn to look surprised, “Do you know me, Sir?”
Mi Jing Lun explained, “Since you appeared on the Purifying Black Ink Battleship, it’s obvious that you’ve left your Imprint on the Universe Array. Be that as it may, you are not a soldier from the Northern or Southern Armies. Throughout the various Great Passes, there is only one person who has left their Imprint on all the Purifying Black Ink Battleships; after all, you were the one who arranged them on the Purifying Black Ink Battleships.”
Yang Kai nodded lightly.
Mi Jing Lun’s expression turned solemn, and he directed the conversation to the main topic, “Did you come because you have a report for me?”
Yang Kai cupped his fist, “I came here under orders from Army Commander Xiang Shan to inform the Great Evolution Northern and Southern Armies that there has been a change to the original plan.”
Mi Jing Lun raised his hand to interrupt, “Please wait a moment!”
His Divine Sense surged for a moment before he beckoned towards Yang Kai, “Come with me.”
A short while later, Yang Kai followed Mi Jing Lun into the Purifying Black Ink Battleship and soon arrived at a conference hall.
It didn’t take long for the Eighth-Order Division Commanders who received the news to arrive in quick succession. Many of them were surprised to see an unfamiliar face and wondered why this Seventh-Order Junior was here. Most just assumed that Yang Kai was part of the Great Evolution Northern and Southern Armies; after all, the Great Evolution Army was composed of people who came from various Great Passes. It was impossible for the Division Commanders to recognise every single soldier in the Army.
However, there were actually a few Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters who had met Yang Kai before and recognized him.
Back when Blue Sky Pass first spread the refining method of the Purifying Black Ink Battleship, every Great Pass had constructed four Purifying Black Ink Battleships. Afterwards, the Great Passes dispatched an Eighth-Order Master to bring the Purifying Black Ink Battleships to Blue Sky Pass so that Yang Kai could install Universe Arrays and seal Purifying Light within them.
Needless to say, the Eighth-Order Masters who met Yang Kai before were the ones who went to Blue Sky Pass back then.
Upon seeing Yang Kai standing here, these Eighth-Order Masters were slightly surprised but soon became delighted. That was because they remembered that the troops from Blue Sky Pass had been dispatched to the Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies. In other words, Yang Kai’s arrival indicated that he brought news from the Eastern and Western Armies.
The Great Evolution Northern and Southern Armies had been waiting for this day for a long time; hence, the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters were filled with anticipation when the news secretly spread out among themselves.
It didn’t take long before all the Eighth-Order Division Commanders arrived. Mi Jing Lun then got straight to the point, “Yang Kai came from the Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies. He has a report for us, so please give him your attention.”
Yang Kai cupped his fist and bowed in greeting, “Yang Kai greets Seniors. I have come under orders from Army Commander Xiang Shan to inform the Great Evolution Northern and Southern Armies that there have been changes to the original battle plans!”
He did not know what the original plans discussed by the higher-ups of the Great Evolution Army were, but it must have been something along the lines of gathering the strength of the four Armies to attack Great Evolution Pass. However, the Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies seemed to have new ideas after their encounter with the Black Ink Clan’s reinforcement during their journey.
“What’s going on?’
“Why have there been changes?”
“If there have been changes to the original plans, then what are we supposed to do now?”
…
The Eighth-Order Masters went into an uproar. It was not that their hearts were not strong enough, but rather that such important military matters concerned both the recovery of Great Evolution Pass and the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers. Therefore, the Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies’ unilateral announcement about changes to the original plans had caught them by surprise.
Mi Jing Lun raised his hand to suppress the noise and only then did the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters calm down. Turning to look at Yang Kai, Mi Jing Lun inquired, “Did the Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies encounter an unexpected incident?”
Yang Kai replied succinctly, “There were no unexpected incidents, but we did encounter a Black Ink Clan reinforcement Army heading towards Wind and Cloud Pass a few days after our departure. Although the enemy had 300,000 troops, it was an easy victory for our side under the leadership of the Old Ancestor.”
Mi Jing Lun nodded lightly.
A force of 300,000 troops might sound like a lot, but they were simply the reinforcements dispatched by Great Evolution Pass to Wind and Cloud Pass. It was obvious that they did not have many Territory Lords among them, so it was not difficult to defeat them with the strength of the Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies.
“What did Senior Brother Xiang say?” He probed further.
Yang Kai continued, “The Army Commander said that the Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies would figure out a way to attract the attention of the Black Ink Clan at Great Evolution Pass and use this opportunity to charge straight into the Black Ink Clan’s territory. When the news reaches Great Evolution Pass, the Black Ink Clan at Great Evolution Pass will surely make a move. If they dispatch their Army back to reinforce their territory, he hopes that the Northern and Southern Armies will intercept them so that the Eastern and Western Armies do not get attacked from the rear.”
As soon as those words left his mouth, the Eighth-Order Masters who had fallen silent earlier showed signs of causing a commotion again. Although the orders that Yang Kai delivered were exact and accurate, there were many puzzling points too.
Mi Jing Lun frowned, “The Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies planning to draw the attention of the Black Ink Clan at Great Evolution Pass? How will they achieve that?”
Yang Kai pondered for a moment before responding, “During the march, the Army Commander summoned all the Artifact Refiners who came along with the Eastern and Western Armies and gathered large amounts of materials to refine an extremely unique type of puppet. These puppets are humanoid in shape and although they did not have great combat abilities, they can exude the aura of a Fifth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master and above once they were activated. It should be enough to confuse them for real people from a distance after dressing them up a bit with the spare clothing that was later collected.”
“Puppets?” Mi Jing Lun was slightly taken aback.
Collecting materials for refining and spare clothing while on the march indicated that the Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies came up with the plan on the fly. It was not something that was premeditated; otherwise, they would not have left the Northern and Southern Armies in the dark.
Besides, Xiang Shan should have known that the Army was supposed to proceed forward with great caution. Rashly changing the original plans could only mean that he had a better plan in place.
Although Yang Kai was only explaining what the Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies had done during their march and did not provide any speculations of his own, just hearing the words ‘puppets’ and ‘clothes’ was enough to make most people come to the same conclusion. The Great Evolution Eastern and Western Armies clearly wanted to use these refined puppets to draw the eyes of the Black Ink Clan at Great Evolution Pass.
“How many of these puppets did you refine?” Mi Jing Lun’s question hit the nail on the head again.
A small number of puppets would not achieve any effect. They would only attract the attention of the Black Ink Clan if they refined an astounding number of them.
“I refined more than 140 puppets myself, and there were 1,000 or so Artifact Refiners who came along with the Eastern and Western Armies. Considering that each person’s attainments in the Dao of Artifact Refining is different and the number of puppets that they could refine is also different, this Junior conservatively estimates that around 50,000 puppets were refined. The number might be even higher than that.”
“50,000!?” One of the Eighth-Order Division Commanders immediately frowned in response.
That was not a small number. If every single puppet could exert the aura of a Fifth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master or above, then their might would indeed be very imposing if they were gathered together in one place. It was just that the resources required to refine so many puppets would also be equally staggering. Besides, they would surely need to prepare large amounts of energy sources inside the puppets in order to activate so many at once.
[Xiang Shan, you spendthrift…]
The Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters were not the only people who were secretly feeling distressed. Not much time had passed since things began looking up for the Human Race on the Black Ink Battlefield, but they were already starting to splurge on resources. It was one thing if these 50,000 puppets could play a decisive role in battle, but it would be a total waste if they could not bring out any real potential.
An Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Division Commander asked, “If the puppets can exert the aura of a Fifth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master and above, what about their true strength?”
If these puppets could also exert the strength of a Fifth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master and above, then the 50,000 puppets alone would be enough to teach the Black Ink Clan a harsh lesson.
Yang Kai replied honestly, “That’s the peculiarity of these puppets. Although the aura they can exert is not weak, they are not very useful in reality. Moreover, their flaws are very obvious since they were refined in a rush. While there is no risk of these flaws being noticed from a distance, the Black Ink Clan will be able to see the truth at a glance once they get close enough.”
The Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters fell silent. It would seem that they could not place their hopes on the puppets; they could only be dispatched as bait for the Eastern and Western Armies at most. But, what was the use of such bait for Xiang Shan to refine so many of these puppets without regard for the cost?
While the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters were pondering these questions, Mi Jing Lun fanned himself with the feather fan in his hand. There was a pensive look on his face, and his eyes constantly flashed with an unusual light. Those were the signs that indicated he was thinking with all his might.
The East-West Army refined these puppets on the march, which meant it was an impromptu decision. Otherwise, these puppets would have been prepared in advance before Wind and Cloud Pass even formed such a large Army.
What could have led the East-West Army to make such a choice? It was impossible for such a change to occur for no reason in this world, especially when it was related to a matter as significant as the recovery of Great Evolution Pass. Xiang Shan knew better than to be so irresponsible.
What’s more, there was an Old Ancestor overseeing the East-West Army. If Xiang Shan failed to convince the Old Ancestor, then it would have been impossible to make changes to the original plans.
Mi Jing Lun suddenly raised his head to look at Yang Kai, “Did he order the refinement of the puppets before or after they encountered the reinforcements from the Black Ink Clan?”
“After,” Yang Kai replied, “Right after defeating the reinforcements from the Black Ink Clan, Army Commander Xiang Shan began to gather materials to refine the puppets. To this end, the Army even took several days to rest and recover before proceeding.”
The Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters were speechless when they heard that, [The East-West Army even took several days to recover and reorganise?]
It had to be said that the North-South Army had departed from Azure Void Pass with all haste, for fear of missing the opportunity to strike while the element of surprise was on their side. In comparison, the East-West Army’s actions were simply unimaginable.
The Black Ink Clan reinforcements only consisted of 300,000 troops, so with an Old Ancestor and 60 Eighth-Order Masters, the East-West Army could have wiped out the enemy without much effort. Why would they need to rest and reorganise?
Mi Jing Lun suddenly nodded, “So that’s how it is.”
One of the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters who was fairly close to Mi Jing Lun asked, “Brother Mi, what have you realised?”
Listening to Yang Kai talking about the East-West Army’s behaviour during the march had left these Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters scratching their heads over the reason why Xiang Shan had made changes to the original plans; however, Mi Jing Lun now claimed that he understood everything.
Leaving aside these Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters, even Yang Kai who came from the East-West Army could not understand what Xiang Shan was planning, he only knew that the puppets must play a special role in the grand scheme of things.
Mi Jing Lun smiled slightly, “Brother Xiang is planning to lure the tiger out of the mountain.”
“What do you mean?” One of the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters asked humbly.
Mi Jing Lun did not explain immediately. On the contrary, he glanced at Yang Kai and inquired, “If my guess is correct, did the East-West Army deliberately allow one of the Territory Lords to escape when they wiped out the 300,000 Black Ink Clan Army?”
Yang Kai shook his head, “This Junior does not know.”
When the war began, both he and Dawn had focused on killing their enemies. There was no time for them to pay attention to other things.
“Then, how many Territory Lords did the East-West Army kill in that battle?”
He replied, “11! This disciple detected the aura of 11 Territory Lords vanishing during the battle.”
“Exactly. In general, a Territory Lord will command between 20,000 and 30,000 troops in battle. For an Army of 300,000, there should have been 10 to 12 Territory Lords in total. Since only 11 Territory Lords lost their lives, then one of them must have escaped.”
Yang Kai frowned in confusion. There was an Old Ancestor overseeing that particular battle, so even if one of the Territory Lords had escaped, she would not have failed to notice him escaping. Putting it that way, it was just as Mi Jing Lun said. The Old Ancestor must have deliberately allowed that Territory Lord to escape.
Thinking back now, the East-West Army had set up an ambush in a hurry, and before the entire Black Ink Clan Army had entered the ambush zone, they had been exposed, so the battle began in haste. It was true that some of the Black Ink Clan had escaped the encirclement and survived as a result. In addition, a large ship under one of the Territory Lords seemed to have been left behind.
At the time, Yang Kai had assumed that the Territory Lord on that ship had been killed, but it would now seem that there was a high possibility that the enemy had escaped instead. Nevertheless, it was an undeniable fact that the auras of 11 Territory Lords had disappeared during the battle.
Mi Jing Lun continued, “Azure Void Pass and Wind and Cloud Pass both underwent great changes, with a second Old Ancestor even appearing outside Wind and Cloud Pass. Such news would not remain a secret for long, and would surely spread throughout the entire Black Ink Battlefield very quickly. If the Royal Lord at Great Evolution Pass learned about this incident, he would undoubtedly become vigilant and wonder whether the Human Race was trying to recover Great Evolution Pass. However, such thoughts are nothing more than conjectures without evidence. There would be no way to prove his suspicions until the Humans actually launched an attack.”
“Be that as it may, the East-West Army deliberately allowed a Territory Lord to escape. If this Territory Lord returned to Great Evolution Pass and reported his experience to the higher-ups, then the Royal Lord will be at least 80% certain his conjectures are correct.”
“Our North-South Army has repeatedly been discovered by the Black Ink Clan because they are already aware of our presence. Therefore, it is not a secret to the Black Ink Clan that the Human Race is trying to recover Great Evolution Pass anymore.”
The Eighth-Order Masters listened quietly. Likewise, Yang Kai was also listening. He felt as though he had received the answers to the various questions in his heart thanks to Mi Jing Lun’s explanation.
“If my guess is correct, then the Black Ink Clan at Great Evolution Pass are not only searching for the location of the North-South Army but also trying to figure out where the East-West Army is. The area around Great Evolution Pass is most likely filled with scouts of the Black Ink Clan. Under these circumstances, the Black Ink Clan will surely deploy their troops ahead of time to garrison Great Evolution Pass in order to prevent any unexpected occurrences.”
Having said this, Mi Jing Lun’s eyes flashed brightly, “At this moment, the defences deployed around Great Evolution Pass will be practically impregnable. Not to mention, the Royal Lord will definitely come to Great Evolution Pass in person to confront our Ninth-Order Old Ancestor.”
“If that’s the case, doesn’t that mean we have lost the opportunity to fight back? How can Great Evolution Pass be retaken?” An Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Master frowned.
Mi Jing Lun shook his head slowly, “The East-West Army is intentionally trying to alert the enemy to their presence. In that case, it stands to reason that they have no intention to storm Great Evolution Pass. That’s also the reason why they made changes to their original plans. These puppets are enough to attract the attention of the Black Ink Clan for a long time. Using this opportunity, the East-West Army will be able to head straight into the Black Ink Clan’s territory.”
“Now that the troops of the Black Ink Clan have gathered at Great Evolution Pass, the defences of the Black Ink Clan’s territory should be relatively thin, and without the presence of a Royal Lord acting as a restraint, the Old Ancestor will be able to act without restraint. If a battle breaks out and news reaches Great Evolution Pass, the Black Ink Clan will not be able to remain calm once they realise that they have been tricked and will surely deploy their troops stationed at Great Evolution Pass to reinforce their lines. At that time, the North-South Army will be able to deal a heavy blow to the Black Ink Clan if they can find the right opportunity. Fighting in the void will reduce many of the risks that come with attacking the Great Pass.” Seeming to realise something all of a sudden, Mi Jing Lun’s eyes brightened. He struck his fan closed against his palm and exclaimed, “Amazing! Brother Xiang is a genius, how absolutely admirable! I can’t believe he saw that far into the future!”
“Brother Mi, your explanation is so obscure that we look like fools in comparison,” one of the Eighth-Order Open Heaven Realm Masters couldn’t resist complaining.
Many people chuckled in response.
Even Mi Jing Lun smiled slightly, “To put it in another way, if we followed the original plans, the North-South Army and the East-West Army were supposed to launch a quick, decisive strike. We should have joined forces nearly a month and a half ago, then subsequently launched an attack on Great Evolution Pass. Our current Great Evolution Army is mighty, and the Royal Lord was not in Great Evolution Pass back then. The only troops stationed there would have been a few Territory Lords and their respective Armies, so it would not have been difficult to recover Great Evolution Pass.”
Everybody nodded in understanding. Recovering the Great Evolution Pass with a swift and sudden strike was the original plan formulated by the higher-ups. There was no nuance to the plan, only an emphasis on speed. In other words, they had planned to conquer Great Evolution Pass before the Black Ink Clan had time to react.
“After recovering Great Evolution Pass, we would surely need to rely on its strength to defend against the Black Ink Clan Army’s inevitable counterattack. Although the Great Evolution Army is mighty and consists of more troops than any other Great Pass, we would not have much time to prepare ourselves once we took Great Evolution Pass. Hence, we would not be able to exert most of Great Evolution Pass’ power when the Black Ink Clan Army arrived and could only meet them head-on. The Black Ink Clan Army would have endless reinforcements coming to their aid, while we would be few in number and our reinforcements would come from afar, if they came at all. Without any foundation to rely on, we would surely suffer great casualties. In the worst-case scenario, Great Evolution Pass would be retaken by the Black Ink Clan; however, there would be nothing we could do to stop them.”
“But, things will be different if we act according to Brother Xiang’s plans,” Mi Jing Lun explained excitedly, “The East-West Army will charge into the Black Ink Clan territory and reduce the Black Ink Clan’s strength as much as possible. Simultaneously, the North-South Army will be able to restrain the Black Ink Clan at Great Evolution Pass. It’s not a big deal if they do not come out, but if they do, we will find a way to ambush them and weaken their strength. If things continue in this manner, then the Black Ink Clan will eventually be overwhelmed and run out of troops. At that time, we will have enough time to build up our strength after conquering Great Evolution Pass. When we regain a firm foothold in Great Evolution Pass, why would we need to fear the trivial Black Ink Clan!”
The realisation dawned upon them after listening to his explanation. They had originally felt unhappy with the East-West Army for making unauthorised changes to the original plan. Nevertheless, looking at the current situation, the new plan was indeed much better than the original one.
To put it simply, Xiang Shan’s plan was to ignore Great Evolution Pass for now. Be that as it may, their end goal was still to recover Great Evolution Pass. In the long term, this plan had a higher chance of success, which was why Mi Jing Lun fully endorsed it.
Since they had a better plan than before, it stood to reason that the North-South Army would cooperate.
After some consideration, Mi Jing Lun suddenly asked, “Yang Kai, how long did it take for you to travel here from the East-West Army?”
“About 20 days or so,” Yang Kai replied.